Monday, September 28, 2009

Roasted Sage Cauliflower with Gnocchi

Hi there! Wow. I really didn't mean to slack off on my blog. September has been a very busy month work wise for me. And I did receive a bit of exciting news! A friend of mine publishes a local magazine here in my town and she asked me to do a monthly recipe feature for her magazine. Cool huh? I do have some recipes in the feature that are new, so once the magazine hits stands, I will post them to the blog.

Let's talk about what I did for dinner tonight. I found this recipe in the latest Real Simple magazine. It looked intriguing. First off, I love gnocchi! No, I didn't make it. It was store bought, but let me tell you that if you ever have the chance to have some homemade gnocchi, take up the offer. It is so good. My friend's mom makes gnocchi all the time. The unfortunate thing is she lives in San Francisco and I have not seen her in 10 years. Perhaps I should fly out :) Second, I LOVE cauliflower. So two things to this SIMPLE weeknight recipe really drew me in! Let's see what you need:

Ingredients:
  • 1 lb gnocchi
  • 1 small head of cauliflower, cut into small florets
  • 3 tablespoons olive oil
  • 12 sage leaves
  • 1/2 teaspoon Kosher salt
  • 1/4 teaspoon black pepper
  • 1/4 cup shaved Parmesan cheese
Yes! That is all you need. Simple right? Let's get cooking:

In a rimmed baking pan, combine the florets, olive oil, sage, salt and pepper. Roast in a 400F oven, tossing once or twice during baking. Bake for 25-30 minutes or until the cauliflower is golden brown and tender.

While the cauliflower is baking in the oven, prepare the gnocchi according to package directions.

Plate your gnocchi, then the cauliflower mixture, and sprinkle with the Parmesan cheese. That is it! Now, my husband smoked a chicken yesterday and I took one of the left over breasts and sliced it up to mix in with this dish.

We enjoyed this meal very much! Simple. Tasty! However... there was one problem with it. It was a little dry. Once I plated our meal, I decided to melt about 3 tablespoons of butter with a dash of Terragon and poured over our dinner to add some liquid. I plan to work on this recipe and make it better! When I do, I will revisit it and share! Do you ever watch Giada on Food Network? She always adds some of the pasta water when she is making a butter/olive oil sauce for her pasta. Perhaps that was what I should have done?

Moving on... let's take a look at the finished product.
Mmmmm! Let me add that this cauliflower "topping" would make a fantastic side to any dinner you may make ;)

Alright. What are you waiting for. Head to your kitchen and make something new! Thanks for reading.