Today’s the day for my group’s Secret Recipe Club Reveal~it’s kinda like a monthly party where everyone gets a secret Santa present!
My “secret blog” assignment for September was BRKLYN Locovore, “One Brooklynite’s adventure of eating, cooking and living local.”
I was thrilled to “meet” Melissa, who is an advocate of the local food movement, something I am an avid supporter of, and she says her life revolves around food. I can certainly relate to that, with a family full of recipe critics and avid foodies!
I will be trying a lot of her recipes, she has everything from an Egg Cream, which sounds very New York to me, Butternut Squash Mac & Cheese,which she swears is healthy, Blueberry White Chocolate Granola and even Homemade Vanilla Extract
I decided to try her Gnocchi with Vodka Sauce and Sage Mushrooms. First of all, what’s NOT to like here?
and secondly, I have never cooked or made gnoochi or Vodka sauce*, so time to try!
I made a few little changes, substituting half and half for real cream, adding roasted tomatoes, and converting it from a “serve now” to a “make ahead dish.”
First I roasted some garden fresh cherry tomatoes
Sauteed mushrooms until golden brown
Hit ’em with some vermouth and sage~
the aroma when the vermouth hits the pan is incredible!
Meanwhile, make the Vodka sauce by adding the tomato sauce, diced tomatoes and tomato paste to the shallots and garlic that have been sauteed in a large sauce pan
Add the cream, vodka and parmesan
Put the cooked gnocchi into a olive oil sprayed baking dish
Top with mushrooms
and roasted tomatoes
And then smother all this goodness with the Vodka sauce
Top with Parmesan
Now here’s the handy part~ you can stash this in the refrigerator and bake it later!
Bake it when you’re ready and serve it up~ no last minute worries, you are cool as a cucumber!
Garnish with a little additional shaved Parm if desired
Baked Gnocchi with Mushrooms and Vodka Sauce
Ingredients
- 2 tsp olive oil
- 2 tbsp minced shallots about 1 bulb
- 2 garlic cloves minced
- 1 can 15 oz. tomato sauce
- 1 can 15 oz. diced tomatoes
- 2 tbsp tomato paste
- 1/3 c vodka
- Pinch of salt
- 1 T butter
- 1 T olive oil
- 8 oz sliced baby bella mushrooms
- 2 T chopped fresh sage leaves
- 2 T dry vermouth sherry or white wine
- 1 c plus 1 T half and half
- 1 lb fresh gnocchi
- 12-16 fresh cherry tomatoes preferably yellow and red mixed
Instructions
- Put tomatoes on an foil lined baking sheet. Drizzle with olive oil and season with salt and pepper. Roast at 400 for 20 minutes.
- In a large saucepan, heat olive oil over medium heat. Add garlic and shallots and cook until fragrant, 2-3 minutes. Add tomato sauce and chopped tomatoes and bring to a boil. Stir in tomato paste and vodka, reduce heat and simmer until sauce has reduced by at least 1/3.
- Meanwhile, bring a large pot of salted water to a boil and cook gnocchi according to the box’s instructions. Fresh gnocchi will only take 1-2 minutes. Melt butter in a saute pan over medium, low heat. Add mushrooms and cook until tender, 7-8 minutes. Add vermouth, 1 tablespoon cream and sage. Mix well and continue cooking until almost all the liquid has evaporated.
- Put drained gnocchi into greased baking dish. Top with mushrooms, then roasted tomatoes
- Stir remaining 1 cup of cream and the Parmesan cheese into the tomato vodka sauce, cooking on low heat until cheese is melted.
- Pour sauce over gnocchi until covered. Reserve extra sauce for serving. Top casserole with more Parmesan. At this point dish can be refrigerated until baking. Bake at 325 30-40 minutes until heated through and bubbly. Serves 4-6
Note: I had some sauce left over, Yippee! Stash away for another day~
This is a great change up from Mac & Cheese and the normal comfort foods~ you will feel like you have been transported to a Rustic Country Farm, in France or Italy perhaps…..
Thanks Melissa for a great recipe! Be sure to pop over to BRKLYN Locovore here and check out all her great ideas!
*NOTE: Vodka, or any alcohol is safe to use in cooking because the alcohol cooks down and is not impairing. The Vodka in tomato sauce is used to enhance the natural flavors of tomatoes and adds a subtle layer of heat to the sauce. If you don’t want to use vodka, the recommended substitution is water, or white grape juice…but I cannot emphasize enough that you must TASTE TASTE TASTE if you are making substitutions, and eliminating vodka will definitely alter taste for this dish~
AND, be sure to click on the inlinkz blue icon below to see all the Secret Recipe Club Reveal Recipes this month!
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I will be sharing this with the awesome parties on my side bar and: