Mon mari avoids pasta but loves gnocchi.
I don’t ask; I just accept and enjoy.
A package of fresh gnocchi is too much for us for one dinner, but not enough for two – so we always have it for a first course one night and as a side dish the next.
When they’re boiled first, then fried, gnocchi get very light with a wonderful, crunchy exterior.
These were finished with a creamy mushroom sauce.
You could double (or triple) it all and have it for a vegetarian main course.
Fried Gnocchi with Creamy Mushroom Sauce
Total time: 25 minutes
Ingredients:
- 25 – 30 fresh gnocchi 1/3 of a 12oz (360gr) package of fresh gnocchi
- 4oz (120gr) mushrooms, roughly chopped I use brown cremini
- 3 shallots, chopped
- 1 tsp paprika
- 1 tbs Dijon-style mustad
- 1/4 cup (2oz, 60ml) Greek yogurt
- 4 tsp olive oil, divided
Instructions:
- Heat water in a medium pot for gnocchi.
- When boiling, add the gnocchi and cook just until they all float, 1 – 2 minutes. Drain.
- Heat 2 tsp oil in a medium nonstick skillet over medium-low heat. Add gnocchi and sauté until light brown, stirring and turning occasionally, 12 – 15 minutes.
- Heat remaining 2 tsp oil in a medium skillet. Add shallots and sauté until tender.
- Add mushrooms, paprika and sauté until mushrooms start to brown.
- Add mustard and stir to combine.
- Remove from heat and stir in yogurt.
- Arrange gnocchi on small plates. Spoon sauce over and serve.
Our local farmer has been busy playing in the dirt again.
Last summer he brought in a big backhoe, some dump trucks and spent the better part of two weeks moving a lot of dirt around.
We never knew why.
When he was all done playing he plowed the field and planted winter wheat.
We were pretty sure that he must have had a purpose….. One does not bring in the heavy equipment just to play, after all.
We had heard rumors that he was digging a lake but, no, when he was done it was just a regular old wheat field that looked just like the sunflower field of the year before.
Last week he started again.
He’s got a big backhoe, a dump truck, a bulldozer and a tractor – dump-trailer.
Isn’t it cute how they line them all up at the end of the day?
They do that every day when they finish…. All nice and neat.
This year we have been told that he’s digging a lake.
There has always been drainage problems with this field so a lake seems like a good idea – to those of us who haven’t a clue….
We still can’t figure out what he’s doing though. He dug out a huge area and moved all the dirt to the other side of the field. Then he went to a different area and started digging a really deep trench.
There’s a surveyor that comes periodically – I assume to keep them on course.
And, once or twice a day the fuel truck comes to give them all a refill.
You can’t tell from the photo – but the fuel truck pulled up and parked. All the equipment stopped what they were doing and raced over from wherever in the field they had been working.
All I could think of was a big nest of baby birds all running to the mama for food
The only reason to spend all the money to build a lake is so that he can irrigate. Wheat and sunflowers don’t need it but corn does.
Will he plant corn next year?
Well…. rumor has it that he’s going to plant tomatoes and beetroot. I haven’t noticed either crop in the area before so we may be witnessing something new. The tomatoes would be the Roma-type, for commercial canning.
I may re-think my own garden next year.
We like beetroot….. And he’d never notice the few Romas I need for the freezer.
I love gnocchi. I don’t care all that much how it’s cooked (for the most part anyway) so this is definitely going in my rotation.
I would find it very hard to get anything done with your neighbor going on like that. He’s better than watching TV. But I vote for the lake.
Nightsmusic, I think the lake is for irrigation, although I am told they always stock them. And our frog population should increase….