Potato Gnocchi with Brown Butter Sage Sauce

Brown butter sage sauce might be the most delicious thing in the world. Honestly, I could probably drizzle it over anything and be happy. But there is probably a reason why a lot of recipes put it over gnocchi. While very tasty, this dish is incredibly rich, and again, not very healthy!

I first made gnocchi at a cooking class at the Wooden Spoon and have been wanting to make it ever since. Honestly its not as difficult as it seems, getting the dough to the right consistency is the toughest part.

The recipe for the gnocchi is from Williams Sanoma (with a few additions) and the brown butter sage sauce I picked up from the class.

Gnocchi

Ingredients:

(this is enough for 4 - 6, I froze half of the dough)

1 lb potatoes (I used 4 russet)
1 large egg
3/4 cup flour
parsley *
Parmesan cheese * (about 1/4 cup, freshly grated)
4 oz. pancetta or ham* (chopped)

*Joe freaks out when I try to serve him a meal without meat, so I had to add the ham. Pancetta would probably be better, but that is all I had. I figured the parsley and cheese would give it more color and flavor. Adding these to the dough did not seem to affect the consistency or cooking process and worked out great.

- Cook the potatoes in boiling water (salted) until cooked through, about 30 - 40 minutes.

- Let cool and take the skins off

WS calls for this next step to be done with a food mill, which I do not have. Potato masher worked just fine.

- Mash potatoes thoroughly and spread out on a baking sheet

- Beat the egg in a bowl with a pinch or two of salt. Pour the egg over the potatoes.

- Sprinkle the flour on top of the egg

- Add the cheese, parsley and ham

- Mix together until all the flour is incorporated, then transfer to a floured surface and knead the dough until smooth (not sticky but still moist, add more flour if you need to)



- Cut the dough into 4 sections. Each quadrant is about 1 serving, so this is the point to freeze some of the dough if you're only cooking for two.,

- Start rolling out the dough by hand into a snake-like shape (Joe helped : )


- Cut the dough into 1/2 inch quadrants and repeat with remaining pieces

- Get a pot of boiling water going and salt the water.

- Drop in gnocchi to the water a few pieces at a time. It will only take each batch about 3 minutes to make and they will rise to the top when they're done. Pull them out with a slotted spoon and add to the sauce (sauce can be started and kept warm at this point).

- Repeat until all the gnocchi are cooked and coated in the sauce.

Brown Butter Sage Sauce

1 stick of butter
sage leaves (chopped)

Start melting the butter slowly with the sage in the pan and allow butter to brown but not burn. That's it, so easy, so delicious, so bad for you.


Grate some Parmesan cheese on top to finish the dish.