I made the ricotta gnocchi today and have mixed reviews on it. I made them with some alfredo sauce I made from scratch and it was...decent. I was really excited about this today so I'm a little bit disheartened but it wasn't a flop by any means. I think I just didn't use enough flour so the gnocchi came out with a weird texture. The alfredo sauce was alright, I probably should have used more spices in it's creation. Either way, I suggest you try your hand at gnocchi...it's easy to make (but it's messy!) with a lot of basic ingredients.
Gnocchi
Ingredients:
- Ricotta cheese (15oz container)
- egg (1)
- olive oil (1tsp)
- flour (2 cups)
- salt (3/4 tsp)
- pepper
Instructions:
1. In a medium bowl, whisk together the ricotta cheese, olive oil, egg, salt, and freshly cracked pepper.
2. Add the flour, 1/2 cup at a time, until it forms a soft sticky dough (about 1.5 cups)
3. Begin boiling a large pot of water. Turn the dough out onto a floured surface and knead in about another 1/2 cup of flour or until the dough no longer sticks to your hands. The dough should still be very soft in texture.
4. Divide the dough into six pieces. Roll each piece out into a rope about 1 inch thick. Cut the rope into 1 inch sections. If desired, roll each piece of dough on the back of a fork to give it a ridged texture.
5. When the water is boiling vigorously, drop the dough pieces into the water. As the gnocchi boil they will begin to rise to the surface. Once all of them are floating on top, let them boil for about 30 seconds to one minute more to ensure thorough cooking. Drain in a colander.
2. Add the flour, 1/2 cup at a time, until it forms a soft sticky dough (about 1.5 cups)
3. Begin boiling a large pot of water. Turn the dough out onto a floured surface and knead in about another 1/2 cup of flour or until the dough no longer sticks to your hands. The dough should still be very soft in texture.
4. Divide the dough into six pieces. Roll each piece out into a rope about 1 inch thick. Cut the rope into 1 inch sections. If desired, roll each piece of dough on the back of a fork to give it a ridged texture.
5. When the water is boiling vigorously, drop the dough pieces into the water. As the gnocchi boil they will begin to rise to the surface. Once all of them are floating on top, let them boil for about 30 seconds to one minute more to ensure thorough cooking. Drain in a colander.
Alfredo Sauce
Ingredients:
- Butter (2 tbsp)
- cream cheese (1/3 cup)
- Milk/Whipping Cream (2/3 cup)
- pinch of nutmeg
- pinch of pepper
- Parmesan cheese (1/3 cup)
Instructions:
1. Melt the butter.
2. Stir in the cream cheese while stirring with a wire whisk. Add the milk slowly, stirring constantly.
3. Bring just to a very low simmer and cook a few minutes.
4. Stir in the nutmeg and pepper. Add the Parmesan, stirring until melted. Cover and let sit until your pasta is done.
The beauty of gnocchi is that it goes with anything...if you don't feel like making your own sauce then you can throw them into the skillet with some butter and garlic or you can put tomato sauce over them...you can do pretty much anything. I'll be making these again soon--with more flour--and hopefully will have more tips on how to keep the texture from being a bit...off.
Now onto shopping!
It was a success today...we ended up spending $30 in total and would have been under that by about $5 had we not spent the money on a dozen bagels (but they will last us awhile). Otherwise it was really good!
We found MOST of what we needed at the dollar store which I was super happy about. We only spent $9.16 there for 9 items of our 14 item list. Super win. The rest we went to Winco for and I'm happy we did!
Green onions were $0.78 for a bundle
Bread crumbs were $0.98 for a HUGE can that will last months
Ricotta was $2.47
A 2.5 lb bag of chicken breasts were $4.78...win here. They will last us the rest of the month
Ground beef was $2.38 for our Taco Night
and Jumbo Shells were $2.19
Those with the bagels were $18.96
Add the $9.16 from the dollar sore onto that and our grand total for the week was...
$28.12!
SUPER stoked...while the entire week we'll be spending $48 on food thanks to eating out, it actually gives me hope that we CAN eat well and still have some money left over in the end. Next week I anticipate we'll spend about this much if not less thanks to the bargains we got today--such as with the chicken and green onions. Eating apparently can happen if you know where to look and plan wisely :)
One last thing before I take off: we never made it to Garry's dad's house yesterday for lunch so we're going over there tomorrow. Everything on the menu will be pushed back so the pepperoni stuffed chicken will be on Tuesday, pesto stuffed shells on Wednesday, eating out Thursday, then the schedule will remain the same...although I MAY not do the lasagna roll ups this week because I used the ricotta today...but we'll see. I may do fried rice or something like it.
Just wanted to make you aware of the changes :)
Have a good day and enjoy your gnocchi--when you get to it ;)
