Its that time of year now isn’t it? The time of the year where we begin to pull indoors and seek out comfort food. I’ve reflected on what I’ve been making these last few weeks and it’s a list of some of my favorite comfort foods: smoked tomato pasta, beef bourguignonne over mashed potatoes, creamy potato, Swiss and bacon soup, and the list goes on!
This week, as part celebration and part mourning, we took all the plants out of the vegetable garden and buttoned it up for the winter. We also planted garlic for next year’s bounty. There were two lonely Italian heirloom roma tomatoes on the last plant and I set them aside and pondered how to honor them. I fondly recalled a skillet of burst cherry tomatoes, mozzarella, and gnocchi I made last year and decided to work on that theme.
I don’t know if any of you grow hot peppers, but everyone I talked to said it was a weird year for peppers. It was here too. They grew nicely, began to flower and fruit then I think we had some bad winds and heavy rains in early summer that sort of beat them up. They looked rough for a month or so and grew big and lush but not many peppers. Then later in the summer it was like they woke up and started blooming flowers and peppers again! So tomato and salsa season is long past but I have a ton of hot peppers coming ripe!
It’s time to pull these too, so I gathered up six or seven different types of the hot peppers and harvested what was ripe; tons of them too late to get ripe. But I love taking these habaneros, hot lemon drop, and long cayenne peppers to dry. I slice them in half, deseed them, smoke them on white oak for about an hour, then dehydrate them. Combining the blend and grind them all for a homemade smoked hot pepper powder! The jalapenos I prefer to slice in half, devein and smoke, but I then freeze these for adding smoked peppers to eggs, pizzas and more.
Passing the herb garden later in the day as we finished up, I grabbed about dozen healthy sage leaves, pinched a few fingers of Italian oregano, and what has proven to be the last dozen fresh basil leaves. Just the aroma of the herbs was making me hungry! I made a few dinners of fresh picked and crushed tomato pastas this summer and wanted something a little different. Besides I only have two lonely romas, right?
I had read somewhere about pan seared gnocchi. I decided to jump online and verify that, and sniff around for ideas. The best one that made me hungry was gnocchi in sage butter! So, taking that thought as inspiration I dashed off to the grocery store for gnocchi! Gnocchi is technically not a pasta. There are those in the world that love to fight over and debate that question, but personally I just like to eat it. And being mostly potato based it fits right into my fall comfort food cravings.
Gnocchi is often served with a red or white creamy Italian sauce, and usually lightly boiled but this is a great alternative to that. I started with 3 tablespoons of butter in a pan along with few minced garlic cloves, and my dozen sage leaves finely chopped. Slowly simmering and letting the butter gently brown along with the garlic and sage. The smell is already captivating my senses! I chopped the basil, oregano, and sort of coarsely chopped my two lonely roma tomatoes.
Adding a small handful of slivered onions to the pan I turn up the heat a bit and get the sage butter and garlic bubbling. I add the dry gnocchi to the hot pan and spread evenly and let them begin to fry or sear. The butter and searing softens and lightly browns the little soft pillows. Careful not to stir them around too much, I let the gnocchi crisp up lightly on the bottom, then toss and turn them to brown the other sides. This should only take a few minutes, no need to over do it.
With plates ready, and gnocchi nicely browned in sage butter and garlic, my addition now is the fresh basil, oregano, and the chopped tomatoes. Adding about ¼ cup of heavy cream to bind it all together, it simmers just long enough to heat the cream and tomatoes then plated and served with a small handful of Parmesan cheese on top, Bam! Pan seared gnocchi in sage butter tomato and cream, yummm.
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