I Gnocchi that I had to be losing my mind when I started this...

I was on a kick again.  I know that I have said this before, but every once in a while the idea of something gets so ingrained in my being that I start to get a little obsessive about making it happen.  I am not sure if it was that I liked saying the word out loud (gnyo-key - it makes my tongue feel all funny when I say it).  Maybe it was all the warnings that they are tough to make (kind of like the "scone challenge" - I don't like it when someone tries to scare me off of something).  But I have been eye-balling a handful of gnocchi recipes for several months now. 

So, when my October issue of Bon Appetit came in and I saw this recipe for Butternut Squash Gnocci with Sage Brown Butter it kind of seemed providential.  (I know the whole Bon Appetit thing sounds a little pretentious but I have really come to enjoy how approachable they make things).  They had done a whole spread on Lidia Bastianich which made me just want to saddle up to a hewn-log table and drink a glass of apple cider.  It just felt so homey, I was entranced with all of the recipes. 

So I peeled. 

I roasted and pureed. 

I riced.  (I have had a potato ricer sitting in my kitchen drawers for years and just never think to use it - I never realized what a handy tool it is.  It will need to come out more often)

I mixed ever so gently. "Minimal handling".  Kind of like the scones...  So I left it sticky and very softly rolled it.  Very, very softly.  (I almost thought I was going to have to burp it and give it a bottle - that's how gentle I was).  

I shaped.  I chilled.  I boiled.  I held my breath. 

I drained.  I browned the butter.  And held my breath some more.  I sauteed in the browned butter and held my breath again. 

We dumped the gnocchi into the browned butter as I watched the child labor helper gently sautee the sweet little gnocchi.  And held my breath some more. 

Since I was doing the 'zine thing and this recipe for Rustic Spinach and Cornmeal Soup was on the same page (and I had a lot of left over home made chicken stock from the soup that I made to go into these stuffing bread bowls that I found on KAF), it was a natural fit.  I threw in some turkey bacon to my version because I had some left over from breakfast. 

So we plated.  We bowled.  We ate.  And it was good.  Whew.  Obsession over.  I can move on to the next one.