Gnocchi Fail

This past weekend I had one of the greatest Saturdays I have had in a long time. The weather in Edmonton has been miserable lately. It's been grey, cloudy and rainy. Then on Friday, it all cleared up and it was bright, sunny and beautiful. I am using my awesome skills in Paint to really show you.

Wow, I am so talented.

I got a message late last week from my friend M, who was wondering if I would want to go to the Farmer's Market on Saturday. I was ecstatic, I love the Farmer's Market! So Saturday we drove down to Whyte Ave to go to the market, and after that we enjoyed lunch on a patio. Did I mention it was 26 C outside? We spent all of the day on Saturday outside, and it was absolutely fabulous. Aside from the sunburn I acquired on my arm. Small price to pay though!

Yesterday I was trying to decide what to do with my goods I purchased from the Farmer's Market. I had the great idea to make gnocchi. When we had lunch, M ordered gnocchi and I tried it for the first time in my life, and wanted to have it again.

Since I was making the sauce to go on top, I thought I would be lazy and just buy packaged gnocchi. I have heard horrible things about gnocchi that is packaged to sit on a shelf, so I looked for frozen or fresh gnocchi and couldn't find any.

I made the decision to just make the gnocchi myself, rather than to buy the kind on the shelf. The ingredients for a basic gnocchi are flour, potatoes, and an egg. You cook the potatoes, allow them to cool, and push them through a food mill or potato ricer. Then you add flour and an egg. Problem, I was out of eggs. I googled egg less gnocchi, and found a recipe that included just flour and potatoes. I made the dough, and cut the gnocchi and went to boil them.

After pulling them out of the water, instead of ending up with a delicious little potato dumpling, I got a mass pile of wet potato and flour. It was so gross.

At this point the roasted tomato sauce was almost finished. I had taken 5 Roma tomatoes (from the market, they were so red and so fresh), and cut them in half. I also took a medium Spanish onion, and sliced it very thinly. In a shallow baking dish I lined the onions on the bottom and tossed them with extra virgin olive oil. I placed the tomato halves on top (insides facing up), and scattered garlic cloves around them. I left the garlic in the peel, could not be easier! I drizzled a bit more oil on top and seasoned with salt and pepper. This went into a 350 F oven, for roughly 45 minutes to an hour.

Upon removal from the oven, I allowed the dish to cool a bit, then I emptied the contents into my blender. (First squish the garlic cloves out of the peel, and discard the peels) I blended it until smooth, though if your prefer a chunky sauce, you can either mash it, or only blend it a little.

So I had a disgusting glob of wet mashed potatoes, and a sauce that smelled like Italian heaven. Luckily I keep a disgusting amount of dried pasta on hand and quickly put some in a pot to boil. Once the pasta was cooked, I poured the sauce on top and added some fresh basil. The basil from the Farmer's Market is a magical thing. A bag will cost roughly $4, and you get a bag full of fresh and beautiful basil. Not a tetra pack of brown basil that costs $2. 99 at the grocery store.

I topped the pasta with some freshly grated Parmesan cheese.

The sauce tasted so fresh. There is really nothing that compares to produce and herbs that are bought at a farmer's market.

I had also bought a bag of mint from the Farmer's Market, and I made a POM Mock-ito to go with supper. I sliced a lime and placed the slices in a glass. To that I added a handful of fresh mint, and about 3/4 cup of POM Wonderful pomegranate juice. I topped it off with club soda.

Mmm this was good!