I introduce you to my husbands and older son’s favorite dish! Well one fo their top 5 dishes for sure, if not the very favorite, ha!
This creamy pesto gnocchi dish is really incredibly delicious. I grew up eating gnocchi at home in Croatia and it was always one of my favorite dishes. My Mom always made it with meet ragu or another Croatian specialty called Pasticada, which is a stewed beef dish cooked in a special wine sauce with prunes. Those are both also very yummy and there is actually a recipe for Pasticada on this blog among my older recipes. Now that I think of it I need to make it again and take some new photos of it.
But back to this gnocchi dish! We all love pesto in the family and many years ago, before we even had kids, Chris and I went to Moab for the first time and we had diner at an Italian place there called Pasta Jay’s. I ordered a baked ziti dish and Chris ordered the creamy pesto gnocchi. We were both blown away with it and whenever we go back we always have it. Several years ago I started making it home too since they love it so much.
Gnocchi is very simple to make, shaping them is a little bit of work but I enjoy it so much, it is relaxing and rewarding to me. The sauce comes together super quick, specially since I love the Kirkland brand pesto and I’ve started using that shortcut when making this, instead of making my own. I love fresh pesto but in this dish the Kirkland brand works beautifully and it gives it such a nice color. Other than pesto, this sauce is just sour cream and a little heavy cream. Light dish this is not. Like really NOT. But I only make it couple if times a year so it’s a big treat for us. I love to top it with freshly grated mozzarella and put it in the oven for 15 minutes, it is soooo good you guys!!!
- 2 lbs russet potatoes
- 3 Tbsp butter
- 1 1/2 to 2 cups of flour
- 1 egg
- 2 Tsp salt
- 1/2 cup of pesto
- 1 cup sour cream
- 1/3 cup of heavy cream
- 1/3 cup freshly grated parmesan cheese
- 1 cup freshly grated mozzarella cheese
- Cook whole potatoes until fork tender then peel them and run them through a potato ricer. Add the butter and mix it in. Let it cool down for five minutes then add 1 1/2 cup flour and salt and then the egg. Dough should be moist but not sticky, if needed ad a little bit more flour. Mix it very gently until it comes together and shape it into a ball.
- Cut it into 6 pieces. Roll each piece into a log and cut little 1 inch pieces. Roll each piece between your palm to shape a little ball and then using your thumb gently roll it over the back of the fork. Place the gnocchi on floured boar or baking sheet pan until ready to cook.
- Boil a large pot of water with generous amount of salt in it. Cook the gnocchi for about 2-3 minutes, just until they all float on the top. Remove from water and toss in the sauce immediately.
- To make the sauce put the pesto in a large pan and warm it up, add the sour cream and the heavy cream and cook for couple of minutes. After the gnocchi is tossed in it add the parmesan cheese and mix.
- If your pan can go into the oven just add the cheese on top and bake for 15 minutes at 450 F. Or transfer into a baking dish and top it with cheese and bake.
- This dish is very filling. This amount serves a lot of people as appetizer and about 4-5 people as an entree.
