Gnocchi

Ah. Gnocchi. I love it so. Although, I do have a hard time pronouncing it correctly. I always end up second guessing myself.

Anyway...Gnocchi. It's name means "lumps" in Italian. I think that is kind of a gross name, so I like to think of them as pillows. Soft, doughy pillows.

And they are delicious. They are very filling and one of my favorite things to make, not only because they taste so good and absorb the surrounding flavors like a sponge, but because they are so stinking easy to make. I'm not kidding. Easy.

Let me show you!

The ingredients:

1 box of gnocchi; dried basil; 2 garlic cloves; 3 plum tomatoes; parsley; salt; olive oil.


Please. For the love of all that is holy. Start that pot of boiling water. It will take it longer to boil than to make the entire meal. I promise. Oh, and while you're at it, dice up those tomatoes. We need them diced. Thanks!

Alright, let's start by drizzling your skillet with around 1 Tbsp. of olive oil. Let it get nice and warm.

While it's warming, take your two garlic cloves...

and smash them. Smash them good. Throw your smashed garlic in the skillet and let them brown.

Oh! The water's boiling? Fantastic. Throw those gnocchi in there. But, here's the important part--it will only take about 3-4 minutes for the gnocchi to cook. You will know they are done when they start floating. Do not leave them. Please.
See? They're done! Now go drain them.

Okay, now these garlics are brown. Just scoop them out and throw them away. We just wanted the garlic to mix with the oil. Now that it has, we no longer need them.

Take those already diced tomatoes and throw them in the oil. We are going to cook them for about 5 minutes.

Add about a Tbsp. of chopped parsley and a dash of the basil. Let them cook with the tomatoes.

It will look cooked down like this after five minutes. Take it off the heat and add it to the gnocchi.

Mix them together and we're done. It was that simple. (I'm sorry this picture is so off color. Apparently I only took the one.)


It doesn't make a lot, so don't freak out if it looks like less than you anticipated. But, the gnocchi is so filling, that to us, it makes a meal. The thing is, though, that Julia loves this stuff sooooo much that I will soon have to start buying two boxes of it because she eats more than her fair share. We usually have a salad with ours or some other green vegetable. Please, go out and try gnocchi. You shan't be disappointed!