Savory Flava' of Italy

Leftover gnocchi, plus asparagus on sale at Whole Foods, plus fresh morel mushrooms at the Farmer's Market just cried out for a gourmet lunch on this rainy crappy day. This was fast and easy given the fact the gnocchi was already made ahead of time. Sometimes I wonder why I ever go out to eat at all (which I rarely do) when I can throw together Sweet Potato Gnocchi with Prosciutto Stuffed Morels and Asparagus. This dish had a better balance of savory to sweet. The gnocchi themselves have a slightly sweet taste and the prosciutto's bold flavor wonderfully permeates both the morel mushrooms and helps balance the sweetness of the gnocchi. The asparagus adds a perfect crunch to finish this dish off. This rates pretty well for nutrition, although the calorie analyzer would not recognize prosciutto so I had to manually calculate the nutrition in. This recipe makes enough topping for one serving of gnocchi and comes in at a mere 120 calories (on top of the gnocchi, that's about 300 calories total), with 3.6g fat (.5g saturated), 15mg cholesterol, 720mg sodium, 11.6 carbs, 3.1g dietary fiber, 3.5g sugars, 13.8g protein, 20% vitamin A, 21% vitamin C, 5% calcium, and 18% iron.


Take two slices of prosciutto and trim off the line of fat (you can leave it in if you don't care about saturated fat). Cut one slice into thin strips and saute in a skillet until crispy and then remove from the pan and onto a paper towel. Then, saute about 2 tbsp thinly sliced shallot, 1 clove of garlic sliced thinly, and 5 or 6 stalks of asparagus cut into 1 inch pieces in the skillet. As that is cooking, slice the other piece of prosciutto into about 5 or 6 even pieces, or one pieces for each morel mushroom you have. I had five morel mushrooms so I did five pieces. Err on the side of using less prosciutto than more since it is a salty and strong meat and you don't want to overpower the flavor of the morel.

(Side bar, for those who do not know how to prepare morels, cut the stem off at the base of fresh morels, then soak in warm water to remove all the dirt for about 5 minutes. Then squeeze out some of the moisture and put on a paper towel until ready to use. For dry morels, you can reconstitute them by boiling them gently in water, broth, or milk depending on what flavor you want. Again, squeeze out some of the moisture and you are ready to go)

Then, roll up each piece and stuff it inside the cavity of the morel. If you can't fit the whole piece in, just trim it and don't force the whole thang in.


Okay, so now your shallots, garlic, and asparagus are done (about 5 minutes assuming you sliced them really thingly), push them to the edges of the pan, and put the morels in the center and let cook a minute or so on each side on medium heat so that the prosciutto cooks and plumps a bit and the morels absorb their moisture. Right after you put the morels in, put your prepared gnocchi in on the edges. Once the morels have had a minute on each side, squeeze half a lemon over everything, throw in your reserved cooked prosciutto, and add some cracked pepper to taste. Then slowly stir everything together and cook 1 or 2 more minutes. Serve with a small amount of grated parmesan (don't use too much since this is also salty!) and relish every single bite. Try to get a piece of prosciutto, asparagus, and gnoccchi in each bite. Enjoy the morels on their own with the prosciutto stuffed inside or alongside the asparagus.