Gnocchi, boiled first, then fried, get a wonderful, crunchy exterior and a light-as-a-feather interior.

Here they are finished with a savory mushroom sauce.

I used  a small number and served it for a first course, but you could easily double everything and have it as a side dish.

Or triple (maybe not quite) and have it as a vegetarian main course (use white wine instead of both the sherry and the beef stock.)

My dinner party menu:

I served the Gnocchi with Mushroom Sauce for the first course, garnished with two Mushrooms Stuffed with Bacon and Tomato and a small, quartered tomato from my garden.

I made a few changes to the stuffed mushrooms – I added chili powder and paprika to the bacon, shallot and tomato filling, used Worcestershire rather than soy sauce and skipped the cheese. There was already plenty of cheese in the menu….  

I boiled the gnocchi, made the sauce, the stuffing and stuffed the mushrooms ahead of time.  I just needed to bake the mushrooms and fry the gnocchi before serving.

The main course was Braised Pork Loin with Red Wine, Shallots and Greek Olives. 

This is a great dish for a dinner party – it can cook for 90 minutes or 150 minutes….. Just adjust the heat a bit for longer cooking.

With the Pork I served Potato Gratin with Fresh Sage.

I made this ahead and put it in the oven when the guests arrived, baking it for 40 minutes. Then I took it out while I did the mushrooms and plated the first course.  It went back in for 30 minutes to finish.

I kept the vegetables simple – Roasted Acorn Squash slices (from my garden)…. 

And the Braised Savoy Cabbage I posted yesterday.

The acorn squash I prepped early, then roasted along with the potatoes, while we had the first course.  The cabbage was done earlier and just kept over low heat until dinner.

No photos of the cheese course, but I had four cheeses: white Cheddar, Vieux Pané, (similar to a Brie – but stronger), Tomme (semi-hard, strong cheese) and an aged sheep’s milk cheese that was soft and very strong.  

With the cheese we had purple grapes and country bread.

For dessert I made an Old Fashioned Apple Crisp.

I would have loved to serve it warm…. But I have a European oven and I couldn’t fit the potatoes, the squash and the apple crisp in at the same time.  

I made it ahead….. And I served it with vanilla ice cream.

After dessert we had coffee, tea and chocolates.

And that was dinner!

Oh…. We had champagne with the nibbles, a white Graves (Bordeaux) with the first course, red Margaux (Bordeaux) with the main and cheese courses.

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