Pumpkin Gnocchi with Butter Walnut Sauce

Recipe: Pumpkin Gnocchi with a Butter Walnut Sauce

Source: http://www.foodrecipeshq.com/pumpkin-gnocchi-with-a-butter-walnut-sauce/

Time: 20 minutes

Ease: 2

Taste: 3

Leftover Value: 4

Down the Drain or Keep in the Strainer: Down the Drain*

*Note: I made an adjustment to the recipe.  I plan to try it again without the adjustment.  My hopes are high, but perhaps too high.  Sigh...

I have made gnocchi once before.  You might remember from this post.  While the taste was delicious, it was a laborious task, which outweighed any delight I may have experienced.

Considering that this gnocchi was not one made of potatoes, I didn't anticipate the same struggle.  However, considering that I was using whole wheat flour per the guidelines of the Daniel Fast that I was semi-somewhat-kind-of-in-a-way following, I decided that I would be good and use whole wheat flour. 

I knew by using whole wheat flour that I was already marking this recipe to be a loser.*

*Note: I'm sorry to those whole wheat lovers out there.  But as I've stated before, I know cardboard that is tastier than whole wheat flour.

These were stupidly simple to make.  In fact, it was about as easy as: mix all the ingredients together, roll them into a cylinder, and slice.

From there, the gnocchi was tossed into a pot of boiling water.

Let me take a moment to tell you how much faster water boils now that I am using All Clad pots.  I have the fastest boiling water in the nation.  My water boils so fast, I have to tell it to slow down so I can catch up.

Okay, I'm done.

I just thought you might like to know.

Here was a promising part to this recipe: butter.

Then again, butter didn't quite meet the guidelines of the fast I was supposed to be sort-of-kind-of following.  Then again, Hubby (who was strictly following the fast) was still away in LA when I made this recipe, so I decided I'd let the butter part of the recipe stay.*

*Which makes me wonder why I couldn't have just let the white flour part stay too.

The gnocchi fried with crushed walnuts in butter until they were crispy and delicious---looking.  Key word: looking.  

One point of major annoyance is that the pumpkin flavor didn't come through at all.  The recipe's author even states that, making me wonder why we even bothered to put it in in the first place.  She does recommend serving the gnocchi with tomato sauce, which I didn't need to read twice to do.

Though I found the gnocchi to be heavy and bland, I would have found it to be absolutely unbearable without the tomato sauce and broccoli I served on the side.   

After eating a small serving I found myself to be full.  

This is a ground breaking, earth shattering comment.  I was full.  I had hardly eaten anything, or so I thought.  But apparently, all that whole wheat goodness packed together brought cause for my stomach to actually say, "I''m good."

I haven't totally written it off yet, but I'm pretty sure that even with white flour the consistency of gnocchi made this way is still going to be much heavier than the light and moist delight of sinking your teeth into a piece of gnocchi made with the starchy goodness of potatoes.

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If you haven't noticed, Orange Strainer has an "Index" section now.  Hopefully this will help in finding specific recipes you might be interested in or looking for.