Back in Action with Pumpkin Gnocchi

Hello Friends.  I feel like it's been ages since I've posted but it's really only been 3 days.  I'm sure that is a long time for those of you who lust after vegetarian recipes and quirky London tidbits.  What have I been doing?  Well the truth is mostly just working.  Nick and I have been really bad at playing house lately which means our house is in the college dorm state and we spend most our days off remedying that fact and doing DIY.  (pictures will come when we finish!)  Anyways... I wonder when we'll really be adults and be able to keep our house in a state of mature cleanliness and not university student mess.  When does this change happen?

I have two days off in a row though (which hasn't been happening much lately) so that means I am house wifing hardcore.  You know this is almost an extreme sport.  I mean I'm carrying 3 loads of laundry up and down the stairs while hopping over various obstacles, doing the dishes while listening to Britney Spears only to find out our dishwasher is broke... (but I fixed it don't worry) lugging a vacuum that weighs 100 pounds because it was probably purchased back in the 1920s or so, painting our guest room so it no longer has a bright orange ceiling (Nick has GREAT taste) then of course the main event - making dinner in perfect time for the husband man's arrival home. Whew!

So here it is Pan Fried Pumpkin Gnocchi... which I stole entirely from Steamy Kitchen

Ingredients

• 1/2 cup ricotta
• 1/2 cup canned pumpkin
• 1/2 cup grated Parmesan 
• 1 egg yolk
• 1 tsp lemon zest
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1 cup all purpose flour sifted, and extra for dusting
• 3 Tbsp butter, divided
• 2 Tbsp olive oil, divided
• 2 Tbsp balsamic vinegar
• 3 sprigs fresh sage

First off, preheat your oven to 150 C or 300 F.  Combine 1/2 cup ricotta, 1/2 cup pumpkin, 1/2 cup parmesan, egg yolk, tsp of lemon zest, 1/2 tsp salt, and half of your sifted flour in a large bowl.  Mix until ingredients just come together.  Then lightly flour your counter, dump the mixture onto the counter, and mix the remaining flour in.  Knead for a minute or so.

Then cut into four equal parts, and roll each into a log, about an inch in diameter.

Then use a knife to slice these into bite size pieces.

In a large pan, heat one tbsp of butter and 1 tbsp of olive oil over medium heat.  When this is hot, add your gnocchi to the pan, cooking for a minute or two on each side until golden brown.  You'll probably have to do 3 or 4 batches so when they're brown place on a baking sheet and pop em into the oven to keep warm.

When all the gnocchi is cooked, discard butter and clean pan with a paper towel.  Add 2 tablespoons of butter and one tablespoon of olive oil to your pan  and put it back on the heat.  When hot, add sage and cook for a few minutes until it's nice and crispy and smells delish!  You can remove the sage at this point or keep it in - depending on whether you like fried sage or not.  Then add 2 tbsp balsamic and whisk for a minute over low heat.  Pour this over your gnocchi and serve.

This is a pretty good dish and is easy to make, even though it looks pretty fancy.  I accidentally used salted butter and I think this added too much salt so I would be sure to use unsalted next time.  I really appreciated the crunchy outside and soft fluffy inside, as well as the bite the balsamic adds.  Something did taste a little too bitter though - perhaps I put in too much zest.  Oh and they say this recipe serves four - maybe we're just lardy but we ate the whole thing between two of us in one sitting.  Fattys.