I waited until last minute and made my gnocchi dish for dinner tonight. I expected it to be a french version of mac n cheese. I've never been a huge fan of gnocchi ... they're just OK in my book ... kinda slimy! :) BUT my husband loves gnocchi and sometimes orders it when we go out to eat at Italian restaurants.
Hubby lived in Buenos Aires, Argentina for a couple of years and the Argentines have not just one official gnocchi day in a year, but TWELVE official gnocchi days!! On the 29th of every month, they figure it is the poorest day of the month because it's the day before payday. Gnocchi is cheap, but filling, so everyone enjoys gnocchi with hopes of prosperity. One peso coin (or one penny) is placed under each plate while eating. Hubby says the gnocchi that he ate while in Argentina was made with a potato dough and usually topped with a marinara type sauce.
I found the gnocchi dish to be very time consuming and I ended up with a lot of dirty pots by the time I was done. My sauce was too thick, so I added some more whole milk. If I were to make it again, I'd reduce the amount of flour in the sauce. Two members of my family said the finished product reminded them of scrambled eggs. I have to say that I kinda agree. My three yr old son is my best eater and he kept eating, and eating, and eating tonight. I made green beans (with some garlic, onion, & tomatoes) to go with the gnocchi dish ... a nice crusty bread would've also been nice.
P.S. I started making my gnocchi using the spoon method. Too slow. I then dumped all the dough into a Ziploc bag, cut one edge, and with scissors, cut piece of dough over the pot of boiling water. Much faster & easier!! And no clean-up if you use a Ziploc bag rather than a pastry bag. :)
12 comments:
Your dish looks so pretty! I'm still on the fence about this dish. It will be a good bit of time before I attempt it again, if at all. Though, the green beans you made sound delicious!
Sounds like your youngest is my kind of eater! Nice job and good for you going to the ziplock bag method. Much more practical when little ones are hungry! PS...I loved all the cupcakes you did for your friend's wedding!
Thanks for the tip on the ziplock bag trick. I'll have to give that a try.
I loved the story about Gnocchi days in Argentina! I've heard that there's a heavy Italian influence in Argentine cuisine, makes sense. Wonderful pictures, too!
Beautiful results and I can understand the collection of dirty dishes and pots while making it. You would never know it from your pics !
I also had a problem with the béchamel sauce! Way too thick. I did freeze mine after I put it together and I actually am not sure if that made a difference. I thought it ok…not great! Sorry you didn't like it…Nice that your little guy loved it!
LOL - your son looks as though he loves it!
I wish my kids had liked this one, 'cause I loved it. (I'll use that Ziploc tip next time.)
Great idea for the ziplock bag method...I bet that would have been a lot easier than my very-messy teaspoon method! Looks yummy...always good to have a good-eater kid in the family! :)
It looks so pretty. Isn't it a shame though that the taste was different than it looked - at least it was for me when it was fresh. I liked it so much better the next day. I agree with cutting the amount of flour. I can see why this is a popular dish in Argentina though because it is very inexpensive to make and very filling.
I wish I had thought to pipe these out - they were a bit on the sticky side! There were definitely a wide range of experiences on this dish. It does look like you had some "enjoyers" in the house.
That's great that your son loved it so much. I can see kids liking it, actually - it's got flavour without being overwhelming.
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