Zach loves gnocchi. After we first discovered them at a tiny Italian restaurant located all too dangerously close to our old house in Georgia, Zach went through a period of gnocchi obsession which culminated in our finally learning to make them ourselves, after which restaurant gnocchi paled in comparison and the gnocchi obsession was reinvented into The Dish We Fix For Extremely Posh Dinner Parties When We Need to Impress Our Guests.
I'm not sure what made me think of Gnocchi for our Christmas /Chanukkah celebration - most likely culinary envy of my friend Kathleen's Italian family's Christmas menu, which centers around
homemade stuffed shells - but it dawned on me that, since gnocchi isn't
hard to make, we would be much more likely to fix them more often if I could come up with a whole wheat version. Of course, since I was working on a holiday dish at the time, I added copious amounts of creamy, buttery rosemary sauce to the gnocchi for the occasion... The
important piece of information, however - along with the fact that rosemary + Parmesan + homemade cream sauce + pillowy potato dumplings equals gastronomic heaven - is that whole wheat gnocchi are not only possible, but positively delicious. A remarkably good
everyday gnocchi, if you will. I just love imagining we have the kind of household where one makes everyday gnocchi... Naturally, we would also reside in an Italian farmhouse on a verdant hillside...
Ah well. I can still make scandalously good gnocchi 6 stories above inner city Dayton... More than enough to be thankful for!
Whole Wheat Gnocchi with Rosemary Cream Sauce2 cups part skim ricotta cheese
2 eggs, beaten
1 cup grated Parmesan cheese
1/4 tsp salt
1/4 tsp pepper
1 1/4 cups white whole wheat flour
1 cup 2% evaporated milk
1 tsp rosemary
2 T Smart Balance Light
4 oz grated mozzarella cheese
3 T panko breadcrumbs
3 T grated Parmesan cheese
~ In a large bowl, stir together the ricotta, eggs, Parmesan, salt, and pepper.
~ Stir in the flour to form a soft dough.
~ Bring a pot of salted water to a boil.
~ With damp hands, gently roll small, 1/2" diameter balls of dough, and drop them into the boiling water.
~ After about 3 minutes, you will see the balls start to float. They're not done yet, though... Notice how they're floating but also still bobbing about in the boiling bubbles? That's how you know they still need to keep cooking... When they are floating definitively and stably on the top of the water (approx. 5 minutes more), you know they're done. Fish them out of the water with a slotted spoon, and transfer them to a colander to drain. You will probably have to cook them in 2 or 3 batches to get all the dough cooked.
~ When all your gnocchi are draining, heat evaporated milk with the rosemary and simmer gently for 5 minutes. Remove from the heat, cover, and set aside to steep for 30 min.
~ Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.
~ Transfer your gnocchi to a casserole dish.
~ Dot the gnocchi with small bits of the Smart Balance Light.
~ Pour the milk and rosemary mixture over top.
~ Sprinkle with the mozzarella cheese.
~ Stir together the panko and Parmesan, and sprinkle the mixture on top of the mozzarella.
~ Bake, uncovered, for 25 minutes - until lightly golden and bubbly. Serve warm!
Zach loves gnocchi. After we first discovered them at a tiny Italian restaurant located all too dangerously close to our old house in Georgia, Zach went through a period of gnocchi obsession which culminated in our finally learning to make them ourselves, after which restaurant gnocchi paled in comparison and the gnocchi obsession was reinvented into The Dish We Fix For Extremely Posh Dinner Parties When We Need to Impress Our Guests.
I'm not sure what made me think of Gnocchi for our Christmas /Chanukkah celebration - most likely culinary envy of my friend Kathleen's Italian family's Christmas menu, which centers around homemade stuffed shells - but it dawned on me that, since gnocchi isn't hard to make, we would be much more likely to fix them more often if I could come up with a whole wheat version. Of course, since I was working on a holiday dish at the time, I added copious amounts of creamy, buttery rosemary sauce to the gnocchi for the occasion... The important piece of information, however - along with the fact that rosemary + Parmesan + homemade cream sauce + pillowy potato dumplings equals gastronomic heaven - is that whole wheat gnocchi are not only possible, but positively delicious. A remarkably good everyday gnocchi, if you will. I just love imagining we have the kind of household where one makes everyday gnocchi... Naturally, we would also reside in an Italian farmhouse on a verdant hillside...
Ah well. I can still make scandalously good gnocchi 6 stories above inner city Dayton... More than enough to be thankful for!
Whole Wheat Gnocchi with Rosemary Cream Sauce
2 cups part skim ricotta cheese
2 eggs, beaten
1 cup grated Parmesan cheese
1/4 tsp salt
1/4 tsp pepper
1 1/4 cups white whole wheat flour
1 cup 2% evaporated milk
1 tsp rosemary
2 T Smart Balance Light
4 oz grated mozzarella cheese
3 T panko breadcrumbs
3 T grated Parmesan cheese
~ In a large bowl, stir together the ricotta, eggs, Parmesan, salt, and pepper.
~ Stir in the flour to form a soft dough.
~ Bring a pot of salted water to a boil.
~ With damp hands, gently roll small, 1/2" diameter balls of dough, and drop them into the boiling water.
~ After about 3 minutes, you will see the balls start to float. They're not done yet, though... Notice how they're floating but also still bobbing about in the boiling bubbles? That's how you know they still need to keep cooking... When they are floating definitively and stably on the top of the water (approx. 5 minutes more), you know they're done. Fish them out of the water with a slotted spoon, and transfer them to a colander to drain. You will probably have to cook them in 2 or 3 batches to get all the dough cooked.
~ When all your gnocchi are draining, heat evaporated milk with the rosemary and simmer gently for 5 minutes. Remove from the heat, cover, and set aside to steep for 30 min.
~ Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.
~ Transfer your gnocchi to a casserole dish.
~ Dot the gnocchi with small bits of the Smart Balance Light.
~ Pour the milk and rosemary mixture over top.
~ Sprinkle with the mozzarella cheese.
~ Stir together the panko and Parmesan, and sprinkle the mixture on top of the mozzarella.
~ Bake, uncovered, for 25 minutes - until lightly golden and bubbly. Serve warm!