gNOcchi?

This semi-fail from a cute homemade birthday dinner.

So I just had my birthday (yay me) and my boyfriend Angel and I made a yummy gnocchi dinner at home as part of the celebration.

So, altogether, we made the gnocchi, which if you don’t know is potato-based pasta, some meatballs (vegan), and some garlic bread. Should have made a veggie too but hey it’s my birthday!!!

I made the gnocchi dough and Angel made the meatballs and garlic bread. The meatballs and bread were yummy, thank you, baby! My gnocchi was strange.

I found this recipe online and I am terrible with recipes because I always think I know better so I may have just messed it up purely by not following along (may have? I 100% did lol).

It called for 2 potatoes, 2 cups of flour, and 1 egg.

I did 3 potatoes (because I didn't trust the portion size) and then I put in a cup of flour - tried to mix it in, then slowly added more, and then I added the egg. I think I added too much flour? Like more than two cups - but if I did 3 potatoes that should have been fine? And then the recipe should have needed 1 ½ eggs which I wasn’t gonna do so I just used the 1 egg.

So altogether MY recipe was 3 potatoes, 2+ cups of flour, and 1 egg.

I didn’t add salt but in hindsight definitely should have.

I then balled the dough up and rolled the little logs off the back of a fork for the cute grooved design. It took a long ass time and I eventually wanted to just throw out the dough because I didn’t wanna keep doing it, but I powered through and froze about a third of the pieces for another time.

Then boiled the pieces in some salted water until they floated, and a little bit passed because I couldn’t believe it cooked that quickly. I did it in batches too so I wouldn’t crowd them and they’d fuse together.

I then transferred them straight from the water to a pan with some butter and oil to brown them.

The butter fried potato balls

When we tried them it tasted very very very flour-y………. Which to me doesn’t add up because there's just no way I added more flour than potato… I also thought maybe it wasn’t cooked enough, so they were crisping for a while on low heat, but that didn’t help.

At this point I was really sad and disappointed because A) birthday dinner tasted yucky. B) it was supposed to be easy but wound up being kind of a lot of work and I was irritated it was a waste.

Anyway, I then poured the pasta sauce directly onto the gnocchi in the buttered pan and mixed, added a few spices and herbs, and let it simmer more. Letting it cook longer in the sauce must have either cooked it more, or just melded some flavors into the dough, but by the time the meatballs and bread were done, and the kitchen was clean, and we sat down to eat, it was actually really good.

I think having the meatballs and bread to accompany it helped and having the extra sauce on it, too. But eating it was really yummy to me so idk why it was so gross when it was plain.

I guess plain pasta doesn’t taste like much on its own either?

Not sure. But this wound up working but was confusing as a process. Lol

Here are some pictures. It looked pretty either way and eventuallylllyyy tasted great so I call it a success.

I didn't get any pics of the dough or the raw pasta, unfortunately.

my bowl

Angel's bowl

Feel free to add parmesan, parsley, olive oil, or whatever you like to top pasta with!

You can also just use herb butter as the sauce, or use alfredo, or make your own concoction!

Let me know if you use this recipe, have made it, or try it yourself!

These were really filling, too! We wound up getting small servings because we didn't think it was gonna be good, but I ate my whole little serving and it was plentyyyy, I was really full after!