It’s become somewhat of a tradition around here to wind down from the weekend with a big, sometimes kind of fancy Sunday night dinner. These last few fall and winter months, that’s typically meant braising some sort of meat low and slow in the oven all afternoon long. We love things like this that are mostly hands-off but yield delicious results, but last weekend after a long week of total weeknight dinner failure, we were craving some time spent in the kitchen.
Gnocchi is one of my favorite dishes, and even though we have the store-bought kind fairly often and I order it at restaurants every chance I get, we’ve never taken the time to make our own from scratch. Last Sunday seemed like the time to finally give it a shot, so we spent the morning scouring cookbooks for gnocchi techniques and vegetable dishes that would compliment the pasta. I had a gnocchi dish at Modern Love a few weeks ago, and I haven’t stopped thinking about it since. It was served in a spicy, tomato-y broth with almond ricotta on the side. Taking inspiration from both my and Kevin’s meals that night, our menu started to come together: traditional potato gnocchi with slow-roasted tomatoes, long-cooked kale, and some high-quality whole milk ricotta to top it off.
Making gnocchi, just like any other homemade pasta, is a labor of love. It’s also basically the adult version of play-doh, so there’s that. It’s not exactly a quick process, but it’s not exactly hard either, and (in my mind at least) spending an afternoon learning new cooking technique is 90% of the fun anyway. The dough comes together surprisingly easy; potato ricers are just plain fun; and rolling, cutting, and shaping each piece of gnocchi is basically what my wannabe-chef dreams are made of.
Of course, you will also want some cocktails to accompany your gnocchi-making adventure. The smartest thing we did on this day (and that I can’t believe we haven’t done before) was to make a pitcher of cocktails. We made enough for 6 total, and before you’re like, omg that’s so many cocktails, you should know that gnocchi-making is a long process. We had one while we boiled the potatoes and worked with the dough; one while cooking and plating; and other later on while we watched the Oscars. The sage-grapefruit cocktail that Kevin picked out was a great compliment to our dinner, and it was so nice to be able to just pour the next one when we were ready and top with Cava.
All of the components of this meal turned out amazing. The gnocchi were light and pillowy even though we weren’t super consistent with their sizing. The slow-cooked tomatoes were so sweet after three hours in a low oven, and the kale had such a rich flavor after cooking for over 30 minutes in an oniony-pancetta broth. And let’s just say I’ll never be buying skim milk ricotta again.
Our afternoon was the perfect way to end a great weekend and kick off the week. Nothing makes me happier than spending time in the kitchen with my favorite person, and nothing is more rewarding than a totally homemade meal.
Should you wish to embark on your own gnocchi-making adventure and have a great date night in (and I highly recommend you do), here’s where you can find all the recipes.
gnocchi: Martha Stewart’s Basic Potato Gnocchi
tomatoes: Smitten Kitchen Slow-Roasted Tomatoes
kale: Long-Cooked Kale (adapted from David Tanis’ One Good Dish) (similar from Mario Batali)
ricotta: whole milk ricotta (such as Bel Gioioso brand)
cocktail: Sage Advice (from Shake) (recipe follows)
SAGE ADVICE COCKTAIL
That looks like a meal my family would love. My boys aren’t picky eaters, and would totally eat this. I’m pinning it.
Awesome, hope your family likes it!
Great photos in this post, Hollyanne! I wish I’d have tried my hand at making gnocchi before I went grain free!
Thanks, Rachael! I bet there is a grain-free version out there somewhere that you could try!
Yum! I’ve checked out that book SHAKE from the library, but didn’t get around to trying any of the cocktails. Beautiful photos though, and will have to check it out again! Everything sounds so good.
This was the first cocktail we made from it, but there are tons more that look really good! You should definitely check it out again if you get the chance! ;)
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