Flamingo Musings

Cooking, Canning, Baking - It's All Kosher

Gnocchi & A Quickie Pasta Sauce

Today’s post is for The Secret Recipe Club, created by Amanda of Amanda’s Cookin’. This is how it works: Every month, you get to scour the blog of another member of the club (assigned to you by Amanda), and pick out and cook or bake any recipe from that person’s blog. And of course, it’s a Secret. Until the big reveal, that is.

My assignment this month, was to choose a recipe from This Chick Cooks. Kate features lots of quick and easy recipes that are great for family meals and desserts, mostly using ingredients that you’re likely to already have in your pantry. The recipe choice was easy: “Mini Italian Dumplings, a/k/a Gnocchi,” adapted from Healthy Cooking magazine. Kate promises that you can have gnocchi on the table in 30 minutes. The secret? This recipe uses instant potato flakes instead of boiling and mashing fresh potatoes.

Now, my husband will tell you that I am a gnocchi freak from way back. In fact, I judge Italian restaurants on the basis of their gnocchi. So, how could I resist a quickie gnocchi? And get your minds out of the gutter, people.

This was definitely quick and easy. I omitted the dried basil called for in the recipe, but changed nothing else, and dressed the gnocchi in my own quickie pasta sauce. Hey, a quickie gnocchi calls for a quickie sauce, right?

Quickie Pasta Sauce

Ingredients:

2 Tbs. olive oil
1 medium onion, roughly chopped
2 – 3 cloves garlic, roughly chopped
2 14 oz. cans chopped tomatoes (I used organic, but I don’t judge)
Kosher salt & freshly ground pepper

Preparation:

Heat the oil on medium-high heat in a 2 – 3 quart saucepan. Add the chopped onion and garlic and sweat until the onion is translucent. Stir in the chopped tomatoes, and season with salt and pepper to your taste.

Partially cover the pot, reduce the heat to medium, and allow to simmer briskly until the liquid is reduced by about half, stirring occasionally. This generally takes about the same amount of time it takes to boil a pot of water and cook your pasta.

This is just the basics. You can saute some chopped bell pepper and/or mushrooms along with the onions and garlic, if you like. You can also add your favorite fresh or dried herbs along with the tomatoes. Whatever you have handy and feel like. Make it your own!

It was really fun, searching through another blogger’s recipe posts for inspiration and a different point of view. Wanna play? Join the Secret Recipe Club here.

Now follow along and see who got who – I can’t wait to see who got me and what they chose to make from my eclectic collection. Will it be a dessert? A main course? A 30-minute family meal? Let’s find out together!

 



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Comments

  3. Gnocchi is one of my all time favorites…so soft and pillowy, YUM! I haven't had it in forever…now I'm craving 🙂

  10. Gnocchi has been on my list of must make and this seems like a perfect beginner recipe. I like quick and easy!

Trackbacks

  1. […] like a pink sauce on my gnocchi, so I made a batch of my Quickie Pasta Sauce and added 1/4 cup of cream at the end.  I like the sauce kind of chunky, but you can hit it with a […]