Gnocchi Bolognese

Gnocchi is one of my favorite pastas, especially fresh gnocchi. Nothing beats fresh it and for this recipe I even got to try out my new kitchen tool to form the cool ridges you see on the pasta in restaurants!

I had a lot of potatoes leftover, I went on a potato buying spree and had tons of potatoes in the house, russets, purple potatoes, baby potatoes - you name it, I had it. So don't be surprised by the sudden influx in potato recipes you'll be seeing in the near future. I'll try to spread them out so I don't look like the crazy potato woman...and to think I'm not even a big potato fan! The husband is, he loves 'em and in any form too - although good old mashed potatoes are his absolute fave.

The basic gnocchi dough for this recipe can be found here in my post from a few months back for pan fried gnocchi and eggplant. The only change to that recipe you'll need to do here is to cook the gnocchi in boiling water like you would any other pasta. After you'll top it off with this delicious bolognese sauce...

Bolognese Sauce
Yield: Enough sauce for 2 pounds of pasta
Prep Time: 15 minutes     I     Cook Time: 20 minutes

Ingredients

• 1 pound chopped meat (I use chicken but turkey or beef is fine too)
• 1/4 cup seasoned bread crumbs
• 1 egg
• 2 tablespoons grated cheese
• salt and pepper
• tomato sauce (your own homemade recipe or jarred - we jar our sauce every summer look for the recipe and process this year!)
• 1/4 milk

Now right off the bat you may notice that my recipe looks a bit like I'm getting ready to prepare meatballs. If you are thinking that right now it's because you're right, that is exactly what I'm doing. I'm not a fan of sauces with teeny tiny pieces of minced meat that becomes mush in the sauce. I want to taste the meat and I want big chunks of it too.

To start this recipe combine all of your ingredients in a large mixing bowl except for the sauce and milk. Heat up some olive oil in a deep skillet and put all of the chopped meat inside. Let it brown a little bit and slowly start to break it up into pieces, but not so much that it starts to look like cat food, leave large chunks of meat whole and continue to cook the meat until it is nicely browned and about 90% cooked.

Once you get to this point pour your sauce over the meat and let it cook over medium heat for approximately five minutes. Then lower the heat and add the milk in stirring it until it is well blended. If you like a little bit of a cheesy taste to your sauce you can add a little parmesan or pecorino in now.

While the sauce is simmering drop your gnocchi into salted, boiling water and cook approximately 5-6 minutes. Once the gnocchi float to the top give them a minute or two before scooping them out.

Drain the pasta and place in a large serving bowl with a little sauce on the bottom so the pasta doesn't dry out. Once all the pasta is cooked top with the remaining sauce.