Bacon walnut gnocchi and asparagus
Perfect potato clouds
We’re one of those families now. We shop at Costco. I held out for a long time, but the ridiculous value of buying in bulk won out. And now I often find myself trying to find interesting ways to use obscene amounts of the same type of produce before it goes bad. Today’s challenge - potatoes. I’d already roasted, stewed, and used them in soup. So tonight: gnocchi. Heaven’s pasta. A dish where every dumpling feels like a cloud in your mouth. ☁️☁️☁️
It was pretty ambitious for a weeknight. My bestie Dana came for dinner and always helps a ton with the kids. That’s the only way I got this done - still took about 1h15min, maybe 1h30min.
Tonight’s takes:
Husband: “Outstanding.” Later in the evening: “My only criticism, and it’s small, is that it could have used a woody herb, like sage or rosemary.”
Dana: “Like eating clouds.”
Helen (5 1/2 years old): “Pretty good. There’s too much cheese though. I really like the bacon.”
Hector (3 years old): “I like my milk.”
I’ve only made gnocchi a handful of times, so I used a recipe tonight. From the Italian Cooking Bible, The Silver Spoon:
What I used:
~1kg (2 1/4 lbs) yellow nugget potatoes - for me this was 15 potatoes
2 cups flour
1 egg
~500 g (1/2lb) bacon - for me this was 9 slices
1 cup walnuts
1 cup loosely packed grated Parmesan cheese
1.1 kg of asparagus - this was a bag of asparagus from Costco
Steps:
I took a lot of photos and Substack is warning me that they might not all fit in the email - sorry! I feel like they are worth a click-through, but let me know.
Filled a large pot with water, lots of salt, and potatoes.
Boiled for 20 minutes.
Slowly fried bacon in sauce pot (my large Le Creuset)
Prepped everything else:
Snapped the ends off the asparagus (to get rid of the woody bit).
Threw them on a sheet pan with lots of olive oil and salt.
Turned oven on to 425°F.
Chopped walnuts into large pieces.
Grated Parmesan.
Finished cooking bacon. Removed it from the sauce pot when it was done. Turned the heat off.
After 20 minutes the potatoes were done. Scooped them out of the water and set them on the counter.
Tossed a 1/2 cup of flour down on the counter.
Riced the potatoes on top of it. Ricers are awesome because they keep the potatoes from getting too gloopy/gluey (which can happen with a masher). And you don’t have to peel your potatoes ahead of time (the ricer catches the skins).
Once all the potatoes were riced, added another 1/2 cup of flour on top.
Used a bench scraper to cut and mix the potatoes and flour together. The dough is so moist and sticky at this point, I find a bench scraper easiest to use (instead of my hands)
What the dough looked like after a minute or so of cutting and scraping it together.
Pulled the dough together with my hands.
Added the egg.
Added another 1/2 cup of flour on top.
Mixed with my hands. It was still really wet, so I added another 1/2 cup of flour (2 cups in total).
Mixed for another minute or so, just until it came together. I didn’t really knead it all all. Just folded it over itself a few times.
Rolled the dough out.
Cut it into 4 pieces.
Rolled 1/4 of the dough into a long rope - to about the thickness of my thumb.
Cut the rope into ~1 cm pieces (about a thumb width).
Rolled gnocchi pieces across gnocchi board (one of the silly single purpose kitchen tools that I just can’t seem to part with).
Repeated the process with remaining 3/4 dough.
Put gnocchi on non-stick Silpat (silicone) sheet. They barely all fit.
Once gnocchi’s were done, turned the stove and oven on - time to cook!
Brought the potato water pot back to a boil.
Put asparagus in the oven.
Warmed sauce pot back up. Browned walnut pieces.
Added gnocchi to boiling water. I didn’t want them to stick together so I only put as many gnocchi as would fit in a single layer - this turned out to be half of them.
By now, the walnuts were done - they brown fast. Added 1/2 cup pasta water to stop the frying. Held on a low simmer.
Gnocchi is done when it floats. This took about 2 minutes.
Scooped them out and add them to the sauce. Carefully stirred to coat.
Added next batch of gnocchi to the boiling water.
Scooped gnocchi and half the sauce out of the sauce pot and into a serving bowl. Added half the bacon and Parmesan. Gently folded everything together.
Returned the remaining sauce to the burner and brought back to a simmer.
Added the next batch of gnocchi to the sauce. Stirred just until the gnocchi were coated - less than 1 minute.
Added the remaining gnocchi and walnut sauce to the serving bowl. Tossed in the rest of the bacon and Parmesan. Gently folded everything together.
Done!
Pulled the asparagus out of the oven.
Served!
Next time:
Damn it, PK was right - it could have used a bit of sage or rosemary. Next time I’d add that alongside the walnuts. And the gnocchi’s were a bit big - dramatic, but a mouthful - I’d make them a wee bit smaller next time. This recipe also made a lot. Next time, I’ll half it.
They were seriously delicious though. I had to stop myself from having a third helping.
😋😋😋
-Ellisa