Saturday, 3/27/2010

GNOCCHI with THYME BUTTER

A week ago I decided to make this recipe to take with us to our monthly church potluck group, The Crockpots. Just in case you don't know, gnocchi is a potato dumpling often used as a pasta. It came from the Taste of Home magazine and seemed simple enough. Other than the potato ricer we had to buy, the only ingredients I didn't already have on hand were potatoes and fresh thyme. Well, it may have sounded simple, but it wasn't.

First of all, the timing for prep was all off. The recipe said to cook the potatoes for 15-20 minutes. Try 25. And then after draining the potatoes, the recipe said it would take 1-2 minutes to let the steam evaporate from the pot over low heat. Try 8 minutes and still steaming. It was very labor intensive to roll the dough out into 1/2 inch ropes, cut the individual dumplings, reshaped them into something that looked like gnocchi and boil in small batches. It took WAY more time than I planned for. We were late.

The thyme butter was easy to make: 1 stick of butter and 4 tsp of fresh thyme leaves. The idea was to melt the butter and add in the cooked gnocchi and thyme, stirring gently to coat the gnocchi. Unfortunately my gnocchi didn't keep their shape and ended up smooshing as I stirred. Looked and tasted a bit like herbed mashed potatoes.

Since we signed up to take a main dish to the potluck and our gnocchi dish was more like mashed potatoes, we decided to do what any good potluckers would do. We stopped at KFC for a bucket of fried chicken on our way. It was delicious and was enjoyed by toddlers, kids, and adults alike. We did take the gnocchi and it was eaten, but it wasn't a dish I was proud of. I won't give up on it yet. Maybe next time I'll watch a tutorial online and/or try a different recipe.

On a positive note, the potato ricer worked great! Now it's time for kitchen clean up. Lots of dishes, pots and pans were required for this not-so-great dish.