GNOCCHI
Fresh Ingredients
2 eggs
1 cup ricotta cheese
8 tsp. butter
1 cup Romano cheese, grated
Storage Ingredients
1 cup instant potato flakes
1 tsp. salt
3 cups flour
Prepare instant potatoes as directed on package. Combine potato with eggs and salt and whip until fluffy. Add ricotta cheese, butter, Romano cheese and flour. Knead until smooth. Shape into 1/2″ rolls and cut into 1″ lengths. Make impression with thumb in each piece, then lightly dust with flour. Drop into boiling water and cook only until they rise to the surface. Drain and serve with your favorite red sauce, cream sauce, or both!
***NOTE: Before cooking, gnocchi may be frozen on a cookie sheet, then placed in a plastic bag to store for up to a month in the freezer.
KILLER CHEESE SAUCE
Fresh Ingredients
1 cup butter
16 oz. cream cheese
2 c. whipping cream
Storage Ingredients
1/2 tsp. dry minced garlic
1/2 tsp. salt
Combine all ingredients and heat very slowly. Stir until smooth and pour over pasta.
RED SAUCE WITH SAUSAGE
Fresh Ingredients
1-2 lbs. mild Italian sausage
Storage Ingredients
2 jars spaghetti sauce (1 lb. 10 oz. each)
Bake or saute sausage as instructed on package, until fully cooked. Slice and add to jarred sauce. Heat and serve over pasta.
This recipe for homemade gnocchi makes two pans full of potato dumplings, smothered in a deliciously rich, creamy blend of cheese, cream, tomato, and sausage. Everyone, including very little children, absolutely loves it. I like to prepare the gnocchi days ahead of time, keep them frozen in the freezer, and then boil them about 20 minutes before we’re going to eat. I also prepare both the cream sauce and the red sauce with Italian sausage slices the day before and slowly warm them ahead of time.
After boiling the gnocchi, I drain and divide them equally between two 9 x 13 inch cake pans, cover each with the Killer Cheese Sauce, and store in a warm oven (300 degrees) until ready to serve. When we’re ready to eat, I also like to garnish the cream sauce with a little additional grated Parmesian cheese and chopped fresh basil or Italian parsley. I serve the red sauce separately so that the guests may help themselves and select the amount of meat they prefer. The preparation for this dish takes some work, mostly ahead of time, but is sooo worth the effort.
Tags: instant mashed potato recipe, provident living, using your food storage
January 16th, 2009 at 1:00 am
In addition you can always throw in any vegetables to your red sauce. You could even put your sausage and tomato sauce in the slow cooker earlier that day and let it cook itself! Then 20 min before serving add in your favorite italian vegetables. I leave this comment today because I made red pasta sauce with ground beef in the slow cooker. It’s the only way I can get my bottled tomatoes to thicken up into a sauce. I always add zuchinni to my sauce before I serve it.
January 16th, 2009 at 10:42 am
Great suggestion Elizabeth. I’m going to add the fresh zuchinni and maybe mushrooms to my sauce next time. The vegetables will compliment perfectly all the creamy cheeses and of course add nutritional value. Thanks for your help! I wish everyone could appreciate how gourmet a dinner from food storage really can be.
March 31st, 2009 at 3:41 pm
Liesa, For the second time I am making up a triple-batch of Gnocchi. This recipe is a BIG hit with my kids. My Gabe loves it so much that he has adopted the superhero name of Gnocchi-boy. He even carries around the plastic cake knife I used to cut the Gnocchi’s to size. I store the Gnocci in freezer bags to use whenever I need a quick yummy dinner.
I have to add that I tried 3 other recipes from diferent sources before falling in love with your way easy recipe.
March 31st, 2009 at 8:23 pm
Hey Julie! Kid’s love this recipe, don’t they?! I’m glad it has been a success in your family! Maybe I’ll make this again for my big kids, over Conference weekend. xoxo
August 16th, 2010 at 11:47 am
Liesa, do you think you could use potato pearls instead of potato flakes and then just not put the butter and salt in?
August 23rd, 2010 at 9:27 pm
Oh for sure Connie! Besides, what’s a little more butter and salt? We’re still talking about pasta, right?
xo Liesa