Flavors of Italy

Lazy Saturday night. Feeling a little anti-social and having been up since 7:00 am preparing for my long run, didn't feel like doing a whole lot other than relaxing. I had spent some time looking at new recipes while waiting for the Comcast guy (who seemed to think I was a teenager and was shocked to find out that I am the ripe old age of 28) had to sort out some block on Comcast's end while he was installing my internet. My self-imposed digital exile is at an end, and all because of cooking. My only frustration with not having internet was not being able to look up recipes or caloric information over the weekend. I loved not having internet since I sit at a computer all freaking day long. But Comcast had a deal, only $25 bucks a month for 6 months before it kicks up, so I caved in. For the sake of food of course. Plus, now I can food blog on the weekends instead of drafting all of my food commentary at home and then shuttling it to work on a USB drive and uploading while I have my morning coffee or lunch. Kudos all around.

Anyway, I've never cooked with fennel before. I knew it had kind of a licorice kind of flavor, like anise. It's used more in French cooking, I think. But I digress. I wanted to use it and I saw a recipe in Cooking Light that looked promising. It was a gnocchi dish which called for fennel, but used a prepackaged gnocchi. Well, that wouldn't do. Prepackaged is not part of my personal food philosophy. That, and as much as potatoes are a whole food, they don't have that much nutritional value in comparison to other foods. And so, I managed to find a recipe for sweet potato gnocchi. Perfecto. Instant new classic -- Sweet Potato Gnocchi with Sausage, Roasted Red Pepper, and Fennel.

The gnocchi recipe makes two serving and is rated A for nutrition. Each serving has 176 calories, .5g fat, 0 cholesterol, 340mg sodium, 36.4g carbs, 2.8g dietary fiber, 4g sugars, 6.3g protein, 219% vitamin A, 19% vitamin C, 3% calcium, and 11% iron.


I made the sweet potato gnocchi first. I microwaved 1 small sweet potato for 5 minutes. Its key to slightly overcook the sweet potato (to get a similar texture as baking) because you want a drier sweet potato for fluffy results. Then I let it cool for about 10 minutes and then peeled off the skin and ate it as my cooking snack. I suppose you could throw it away, but that's where half the vitamins are, and well, my stomach was grumbling because my metabolism was still revved from my morning run. Then, I mashed that with 1 clove of garlic minced, 1/4 tsp fine sea salt, 1/4 tsp freshly grated nutmeg, and 1 egg white. I just used a fork so as not to overwork the starches. I think next time I will try to grate the cooked sweet potato rather than go straight to mashing for additional lightness. It will become a smooth paste and then slowly add it about 1/2 cup whole wheat flour (or as much as you need) for it to become a workable dough. By workable, I mean something you can handle with floured hands. It is soooo important not to use too much flour because thats when you get the heavy dense gummy gnocchi that you often get in sub-par restaurants. You should have more sweet potato than flour!

When the dough is workable (and should still feel very flexible), flour your hands, and roll into dowels lightly. Don't squish the dough too much or you get that denseness. It should be about as fat as your pinky. Then, slice them into 1 inch pieces.


Then, bring a pot of water with a generous pinch of salt to a boil, have an ice water bath in a big bowl waiting nearby, and start slowly dropping the gnocchi in one by one. I say slowly because you don't want the boil to stop. If you dump them all in at once, the temperature of the water drops too much. Anyway, I put about a third in, waited a bit, then started dropping the rest in slowly. After a few minutes, the first few should start to float. Be prepared with a slotted spoon and scoop the floating gnocchi out immediately and transfer to the ice bath. Start adding the last of the gnocchi, and wait patiently as the little pillows of happiness start floating, scooping them out as they pop up. When all are done, keep about 1/4 cup of the cooking water for later, and dump the rest. Drain the ice bath and then take another bowl with 1 tsp olive oil in the bottom, and transfer the cooked gnocchi into the bowl. Toss with the oil and set aside. You can use as much as you want for this meal, or set some aside in a tupperware in the fridge. These will keep up to 2 days. I saved one portion for another gnocchi recipe I want to try tomorrow.


Once the gnocchi were done, I was able to focus on what I was going to put on top of the gnocchi. This is a wonderful combination of chicken sausage, fennel, and roasted red peppers which makes for a savory sweet combination that was perfect with the sweet potato gnocchi. This part of the dish was made just for 1 serving at 236 calories with 15.9g fat (4.8g saturated), 40mg cholesterol, 393mg sodium, 12.3g carbs, 3.6g dietary fiver, 5g sugars, 11.3g protein, 41% vitamin A, 146% vitamin C, 6% calcium, and 8% iron.

I browned 1/3 of a Whole Foods-made apple spice chicken sausage (casing removed), about 1.6 oz in 1/2 tsp olive oil. Then I removed the sausage and set it aside, and cooked on medium 1/2 cup of thinly sliced red onion and 1/2 cup thinly sliced fennel bulb for about 10-15 minutes until almost carmelized. While the onion and fennel were cooking, I roasted a red bell pepper in my toasted oven. This is an easy process to create roasted red peppers. I set my toaster to broil, then cut the red pepper in half and put each half on tin foil with the skin side up. Let them broil until the skins are black. If you have a gas stove, you can also char the skin just by putting the pepper skin directly to the flame. Make sure you get a good even char all over.


Let them cool when they come out as the steam from cooling will make it easy to remove the char. Once they are cool enough to hand, either peel by hand or use a spoon to scrape the char off. If you charred a whole pepper, you can put it in a plastic bag and rub the char off, but I find that gets kind of messy.


Its okay if a little char is left on... thats what gives it the nice smoky roasted flavor. Once all the char is off, it should look like this.


Okay, so once the fennel and onion are nicely cooked and soft, add back in the gnocchi, the cooked sausage, throw in 1/2 a roasted red pepper sliced thinly, 1 tbsp chopped flat-leaf parsley, some cracked black pepper, and grate some parmesan into the dish. When its warmed, serve with some parmesan grated on top. Absolutely fantastic!