We've all been there. Standing in the grocery store with no idea what to make for dinner. You wander through the produce department looking at seasonal specials then head over to the butcher too see what looks fresh, but the real problem is you don't have an appetite for anything, but you're hungry, then suddenly something sparks your interest; a certain spice, or cut of meat, and you go wild gathering all the ingredients.
My spark was the cover of
Food and Wine's April issue; a beautiful picture of
Meyer-Lemon Gnocchi. The best part of my adventure to the grocery store was all I had to buy were two Yukon Gold potatoes.
First of all, I completely went on impulse when choosing this dish. I have never made gnocchi nor have I ever eaten it at a restaurant. I was blindly going into this with only visions of a pretty picture.
Wow, was I in for a surprise.
I started peeling the potatoes on Wednesday night at 6pm. The recipe said it only took an hour and 15 minutes. I thought to myself, "Perfect, it'll be ready to go before 7:30pm". Once the potatoes were in the boiling water I started to make the lemon egg mixture. Easy. Gnocchi was going to be a piece of cake.
I get the potatoes out of the water and into the food mill. Perfect texture! I pour the lemon egg mixture over the potatoes and stir into a gooey substance. In goes the flour. Awesome, a dough, just like the recipe said.
The recipe said,
Gently roll the dough into four 1/2-inch-thick ropes. Using a sharp knife, cut
each rope into 1/2-inch pieces. Roll each piece against the tines of a fork to
make ridges. Transfer the gnocchi to the baking sheet, cover with plastic wrap
and refrigerate.
What the recipe didn't say was this process was going to take an hour and fifteen minutes itself. I had a large cutting board covered in ropes of dough, and cutting it into pieces was fine, but do you know how long it takes to roll each individual gnocchi around a fork? Forever!
I had three burners on trying to be "Master of the Gnocchi", one fore boiling the gnocchi, another for pan searing, and other for the lemon butter sauce. I had three backing sheets covered with gnocchi at all different stages, pre-boiled, pre-seared, and awaiting sauce.
When I was finally ready to start browning the gnocchi, I thought the recipe said melt 1 stick butter...so I did. I added my first batch (out of 5) into the pan. I didn't think it looked right, there was way too much butter, so I looked at the recipe again. Doh! It's only 1 tablespoon.
I quickly scooped out the gnocchi and poured the remaining melted butter into a bowl and only kept 1 tablespoon. The gnocchi had to be thrown out, but I had 4 more batches to go, so no worries.
Once all the gnocchi was browned, I placed it in a large serving bowl and poured the lemon butter mixture on top. My long awaited first bite was finally here...two and a half hours later.
As the gnocchi touched my tongue I was hoping for a spectacular sensation for my taste buds, but alas, disappointment. I realized I don't like gnocchi. All that hard work for a dish I'm not a big fan of.
Jeff came home and devoured it. His only suggestion was to add some meat...grill chicken perhaps. After my 2 and half cooking extravaganza, I thought I would be more disappointed because I didn't like the meal, but it was just another learning experience and one not to be repeated.
