Skip to main content

Summertime Gnocchi Pesto for Shabbos Lunch! (with Gnocchi recipe)

Mmm… this was great; truly classic light Shabbos lunch fare.  Another delicious new favourite from the Kosher by Design Teens & 20-Somethings cookbook… (that’s a link to BUY the cookbook, but you can find the complete recipe here).

Basically, you round up all the basil your garden has to offer, throw in a half-cup of pecans, some garlic, sea salt, olive oil, lemon juice and mayo, whir it up in the blender…

 DSC03325 DSC03326 DSC03327

… and then toss it with a whole bunch of store-bought gnocchi!  What?  No store-bought gnocchi handy?  No store sells it near you?  Kosher store-bought gnocchi costs a ridiculous $6 for half a pound???  Make it yourself – it’s easy! 

No recipe for this, but here’s what you’ll need:

  • 4 organic potatoes, preferably russet or another baking variety, scrubbed and poked with a fork
  • Salt, kosher or sea salt or whatever you like
  • 1 egg
  • all-purpose flour, maybe a couple of cups?
  • Big pot of seasoned / salted / oiled water (see recipe for cooking instructions)

And here’s what I did:

  1. Bake potatoes around 375-400 maybe 45 minutes, until soft through
  2. Peel & mash potatoes, add salt to taste (give crunchy peels to big kids to snack on as they get ready for Shabbos)
  3. Add 1 egg
  4. Knead in enough flour to make a kind-of firm dough (it’ll still be a bit sticky – mashed potatoes have a lot of moisture in them)
  5. With plenty of flour on the table, roll 1/4 of the mixture into a long snake and slice into 1”-ish pieces
  6. Toss pieces in flour
  7. If desired, roll against a fork to get “sauce-holding” ridges, if desired; otherwise, they’ll look more like slimy boulders than gnocchi, but they will still taste delicious.
  8. Repeat until all dough is used up.  Flour finished gnocchi generously and either a) freeze in a pan until solid, then toss in a freezer baggie, or b) use right away.
  9. To use, boil big pot of seasoned water and toss 1/2 of gnocchi in.  Cook 3-4 minutes until they float to the surface, then skim from pot with slotted (or holey) spoon to remove to colander or sieve.
  10. Rinse very well in cold running water; further cooking will turn them to mush.
  11. Drain well and toss in bowl with vegetable oil so they don’t stick together.  Handle cooked gnocchi gently; I used a rubber spatula to ensure that I didn’t smush them.
  12. Repeat to cook second half, or save them for another time!

Here’s what the recipe looks like in the cookbook…

 DSC03329

Mmm… right?  Well, here’s MY version.  Blah!

 DSC03330

Blech!  Yes, they look like slimy boulders coated in bile.  But I assure you, it was absolutely heavenly.  I tossed in some small tomatoes cut in eighths just before serving to brighten it up a bit, and the flavours blended together just perfectly…

This was only my second time having pesto, by the way.  But yet again, it was a delight. 

In other Food Xenophobe news, I ate my first blackberry yesterday.  Needless to say, the USB port gave me quite a shock.  Ha ha ha… I joke. 

No, it was a real blackberry, the fruit kind.  And honestly, I was somewhat underwhelmed.  It tasted like a cross between a delicious raspberry and, um, wine?  Or maybe just a not-so-great raspberry?  Maybe a grape, but there was definitely something earthier in the blackberry.  Earthier and coarse; where a raspberry flavour kind of seems to float ethereally, the blackberry tasted more like it’s tethered to the soil.

Hmm… several websites I just visited have me wondering whether what we have might not be black raspberries, based on the size and shape and the fact that they have a distinctive “rasp” in the centre which leaves them hollow when pulled away from the stem.  Still – not my favourite.

In other news, the real raspberries should be ready very soon – maybe even tomorrow!  And we might even get a few blueberries…!

What yummy stuff is growing in your garden???

Comments

  1. well, we've kind of been slacking off in the gardening department, but there are some nice-looking blueberries on our bushes. The peach tree and plum tree had lots of fruit on them before we removed it (still trying to encourage strong root growth.) The raspberries seem to be hidden behind the overgrown hydrangeas, so I'll trim those back this week to see if we have any yummy surprises!

    ReplyDelete
  2. If your blackberries have holes like raspberries, the they aren't the real thing. Blackberries are soooo yummy. Kind of like the difference between an orange and a palmella (spelling?). One is so good, but the other is a slightly twisted and amazing version. Mulberries are like that too, except their taste-alike (or food doppleganger) is maple syrup. :). Enough random commenting from the gal up past midnight east coast time, and jet lagged, and no where near a garden?

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

I love your comments!

Popular posts from this blog

לימודי קודש/Limudei Kodesh Copywork & Activity Printables

Welcome to my Limudei Kodesh / Jewish Studies copywork and activity printables page.  As of June 2013, I am slowly but surely moving all my printables over to 4shared because Google Docs / Drive is just too flaky for me. What you’ll find here: Weekly Parsha Copywork More Parsha Activities More Chumash / Tanach Activities Yom Tov Copywork & Activities Tefillah Copywork Pirkei Avos / Pirkei Avot Jewish Preschool Resources Other printables! For General Studies printables and activities, including Hebrew-English science resources and more, click here . For Miscellaneous homeschool helps and printables, click here . If you use any of my worksheets, activities or printables, please leave a comment or email me at Jay3fer “at” gmail “dot” com, to link to your blog, to tell me what you’re doing with it, or just to say hi!  If you want to use them in a school, camp or co-op setting, please email me (remove the X’s) for rates. If you just want to say Thank You, here’s a

Hebrew/ עברית & English General Studies Printables

For Jewish Studies, including weekly parsha resources and copywork, click here . If you use any of my worksheets, activities or printables, please leave a comment or email me at Jay3fer “at” gmail “dot” com, to link to your blog, to tell me what you’re doing with it, or just to say hi!  If you want to use them in a school, camp or co-op setting, please email me (remove the X’s) for rates. If you enjoy these resources, please consider buying my weekly parsha book, The Family Torah :  the story of the Torah, written to be read aloud – or any of my other wonderful Jewish books for kids and families . English Worksheets & Printables: (For Hebrew, click here ) Science :  Plants, Animals, Human Body Math   Ambleside :  Composers, Artists History Geography Language & Literature     Science General Poems for Elemental Science .  Original Poems written by ME, because the ones that came with Elemental Science were so awful.  Three pages are included:  one page with two po

It's Heart Month: 3 days left to save lives!

Dear Friends & Family: Hi, everybody! Sorry I can’t stop by in person... you're a bit out of my area.  :-) We’re out walking up and down on our street on this beautiful afternoon to raise money for Heart & Stroke.  This cause is important to me (I won't say it's close to my heart , because that would be tacky!).  I hope you'll join me by donating online. Growing up, I watched as every single one of my grandparents' lives were shortened by heart disease and strokes, and my father had a defibrillator that saved his life on more than one occasion.  Heart disease and stroke kill 1 in 3 Canadians and are the #1 killer of women. Please click this link to be redirected to my main page at the Heart & Stroke website: http://tinyurl.com/AtlasHeart Thus ends my personal appeal.  Official information follows.  :-))) ----- Heart disease and stroke is the #1 killer of women - taking more women's lives than all forms of cancer combined. But no one is immune. Th