The Great Pumpkin Gnocchi Recipe

Random Thought: 

What if ...we ate through our bellybuttons. I have been pondering this all day.

In other news, it's my parents' 24th anniversary. Yay!, I am so honored to be a a product of their love. Congrats Mom and Dad! In celebration and as a "thank-you" for life, I am making them dinner: pumpkin gnocchi. Gnocchi is a funny word, it sounds like it's spelled Y-o-n-k-y. Thank god, it was never given to me during a spelling bee.


Pumpkin is so underrated and the poor thing is only really utilized during Halloween and Thanksgiving, when in reality it's deserved year-round recognition. Team Pumpkin! It's my first-time attempting to make this veggie pasta, but the recipe looks easy enough so lets go!

What you'll need:

• 1 (15 oz.) Can Pumpkin 
• Nutmeg & All-spice (to taste)
• Cinnamon (1/2 teaspoon or to taste)
• 2 3/4 Cups All-Purpose Whole Wheat Flour
• Minced Garlic
• Salt and Pepper 
• Sauce of choice

Directions:

1.) Mix flour, canned pumpkin and seasonings together to form a pumpkin-y dough.  You may need to keep adding flour until it becomes a doughy consistency.

                                         

2.) You may need to add additional flour if the dough is sticky or falls apart; keep adding small amounts until it's no longer a sticky mess. FYI... taking pictures + rolling dough = a phone covered in flour

3.) Create a lightly floured surface, and divide dough into 6 parts. Pretend you work as an Auntie Annies' pretzel maker and roll each piece into a rope about 1 inch in diameter. This recipe made me realized that Annie would have fired me.

4.) Begin boiling a pot of water...add salt to the water, too!

5.) Take the first rope and cut into 1 inch pieces, roll each in the floured surface so it has a light, floured layer. When cutting, I found that small pieces worked best but do you. Place each rolled "gnocchi" on a floured baking sheet. 

6.) Repeat until all of the ropes have been cut and rolled into lovely gnocchi shapes.

7.) Once the water is boiled, add salt and drop in the gnocchi a handful at a time. Gnocchi are finished when they float to the top (like little buoys). Retrieve each veggie noodle with a slotted spoon as they come afloat.

8.) Gently rinse the gnocchi off with warm water, then plate and top off with hot, tomato sauce!

I was pleasantly surprised that the pumpkin gnocchi had the same consistency as regular, pasta gnocchi; so good! Another success were the green beans (above) which were mixed and marinated in pesto sauce.

 Bon Appetite! 

Fall is Upon Us

Last week was a balmy 75 degrees; this morning, I woke up to the aftermath of Jack Frost violating my car. This can only mean one thing: Fall is upon us.

I would be more bummed to say farewell to Summer if I wasn't completely in love with the Fall season; maybe because it contains the one holiday focused around food, but I love everything that Fall has to offer: hot cider, sweaters, colorful leaves and pumpkin flavored beers...it's perfection at nature's finest.

But there are 2 slight downfalls that the change of temperature brings:
(1) it's one step closer to 6 months in a snow globe; and
(2) my garden will soon be an ice rink.

What...No more backyard supermarket? No more harvesting? How will I live my life? This is devastating since we've been through so much; it's like being forced to say good- bye to a Summer fling. I mean, I suppose I could be a normal person and buy my veggies from the grocery store but where's the fun in that? Maybe I'll start shopping in the produce section of Price Chopper with a trowel and basket. Sigh. These are the times that I wish I had a greenhouse then I could harvest my lovely vegetables all year round.

Maybe I'll freeze some of the zucchini and squash, but I don't have a ton of experience with that. Any tips? I see a lot of acorn squash and pumpkin recipes in my future and that is A-OK with me, the future is bright and delicious!

TGIF! Bundle up and enjoy the weekend!