Gnocci

I've never cooked Gnocci before, but I figured how hard could it be? Mike (my husband) loves them and I've been missing him today so I guess that's why they sounded so good. I did make enough for him to eat when he gets home! Also I had just one serving of mashed potatoes leftover from dinner on Sunday that needed to be used anyway.

Gnocci
1 cup mashed potatoes* (I had 1 1/2 cups leftover from Sunday dinner so that's what I used)
1 egg, beaten
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 tsp ground nutmeg
1/8 teaspoon ground black pepper
1/2 to 1 cup all-purpose flour

Whisk together potatoes, egg, nutmeg, salt, and pepper. Blend in enough flour to make a fairly stiff dough. Turn dough out on a well floured board. Knead lightly. Divide dough in half. Shape each half into a long thin roll, the thickness of a breadstick.

With a knife dipped in flour, cut into bite-size pieces. Place a few gnocchi in boiling water. As the gnocchi rise to the top of the pot, remove them with a slotted spoon. Repeat until all are cooked.

*You can substitute potatoes for 1 cup dry potato flakes and 1 cup boiling water. Place potato flakes in a medium-size bowl. Pour in boiling water; stir until blended. Let cool.

These were SO easy that I decided to experiment a little bit. First off, instead of cooking them with sauce I tried broiling them with cheese on top. Gnocci are so soft and moist they really don't need the sauce anyway. (FYI- be careful not to add too much flour to the dough or they won't be as soft and delicious.) I just laid the Gnocci in a greased pan and shredded some Mozzarella on top. Put them under the broiler on High for 5 minutes until they were golden brown. Yum!
The next thing that I tried (and I'm sure I'm not the first one to have done this) was to substitute the mashed potatoes for cottage cheese. They turned out REALLY good but I'm not sure which one I liked better. They were both pretty tasty. When my garden starts producing I'm going to try subbing in some cooked spinache or steamed zucchini instead of the mashed potatoes. We'll see how it goes!