Gnocchi with blue cheese cream sauce a la Dave

Submitted by David on Sat, 2013-02-16 17:10

Don't quite know why people think dishes like this are something you need a whole lot of prep for or you need to go to a snooty restaurant for (though if you went to a snooty restaurant you'd probably get a bit of booze in the sauce which might be a nice addition). And, of course, this isn't anything a cardiologist is likely to recommend but I tend to align with Julia Child's statement: "Everything in moderation... including moderation."

(Yield: one Dave-full... give or take some salad)

Ingredients:

  • As many mushrooms as you like (I used ~100g)
  • Olive oil (I used maybe 1/2 tbsp)
  • Heavy cream (I used ~1/2 cup)
  • Store-bought gnocchi unless you have too much time on your hands (I used ~250g)
  • As much blue cheese as you'd like (I used ~65g)
  • 2 pinches ground sage (if you're cheap and lazy like me) or chopped fresh sage if you're not
  • Pepper

Overly detailed instructions:

  1. Turn on a pan full with enough water to cook your gnocchi on high enough that it'll come to a boil before you need the gnocchi in.
  2. Slice mushrooms.
  3. Turn on frying pan to medium heat and dump in oil after a few seconds if cooking with induction or gas. If using a non-induction electric stove make a cup of coffee, sip it slowly and then take a nice long afternoon nap while waiting for the pan to start to feel slightly warm before adding oil.
  4. Once oil is hot, saute mushrooms in oil until they're looking close to done. Stirring occasionally. Maybe 4 mins total.
  5. Dump in cream and scrape any mushroom bits stuck on the bottom of the pan into the sauce. Let evaporate for a min or two or so. If using dried sage add now (but if using fresh add just a few seconds before the sauce is done cooking).
  6. Add some salt to the boiling water. (Italian rule of thumb: 1-1.5 tsp salt per liter of water when making pasta / gnocchi - the vast majority of this salt will be going down your drain but a bit makes it into the stuff getting cooked).
  7. Add gnocchi to boiling, salted water. (Warning: they only take 2-3 minutes to cook).
  8. Crumble blue cheese into your cream sauce. Stir intermittently while keeping an eye on the gnocchi. (Play with the heat to ensure that the sauce doesn't get too dry but that the cheese melts). Add a bit of freshly ground pepper.
  9. Once the gnocchi float they're done. Generally it's recommended to scoop out of the water rather than draining like pasta as gnocchi is a bit more fragile. Dump them on plate.
  10. Pour / scrape cream sauce out of pan and over gnocchi.
  11. Eat.