Gnocchi Fail; Successful Goat Cheese-Pesto Sauce

Cooking disasters can be disappointing, but last Friday’s meal was a huge downer because I was so looking forward to home made wheatless gnocchi.

Two food items remind me of my grandmother: gnocchi and pesto. And there’s nothing better than the two combined.

So last Friday night, even though it wasn’t the 29th when Argentina has this gnocchi eating ritual, I embarked on a wheatless gnocchi quest, based on this recipe from AllRecipes. I was undecided as to use manioc or rye flour, but decided on manioc for its stickiness and lack of flavor.

FAIL.

Should have gone for either rye or a corn/soy combo like I do for most of my baked goods. They had a thoroughly inedible gummy texture to them, kind of like a gnocchi-chipá hybrid. We called them chipagnocchis. So, not wanting to throw food away (though I was terribly tempted to do so), we fried them (yes, you read that correctly) in an attempt to make them crunchy. That rendered them edible, though still far from delicious.

The only high point of the meal was the grilled salmon that followed (though I have to admit I was so thoroughly disappointed by the whole meal I didn’t have much of an appetite by that point), and the chipagnocchi sauce, which was delicious on its own.

Ingredients:

Goat cheese
Sun dried tomatoes
Green onion
Pesto
Sesame seeds
Water

I sauteed the green onion and added the tomatoes, pesto, and goat cheese. Once the cheese had melted, I added some water to make it into more of a sauce. The sesame seeds went on top, as usual. Delicious.

Enjoy!  (I’ll update if I figure out a better recipe for wheatless gnocchi).