Apr 9, 2012

vine and dine + gnocchi with basil and roasted shallot cream sauce


Vine and Dine, hosted by Tami Noyes at Vegan Appetite, is Potato Gnocchi with Basil in a Roasted Shallot Cream Sauce, from Spork-Fed

The family loves Gnocchi so we decided to go for it and participate in Tami's cookalong, even though this cookbook is not on my shelf. 

The gnocchi recipe itself is basic, using potatoes and flour. The sauce uses roasted shallots and tons of cashews, which makes the sauce quite thick. You can very successfully reduce the amount of nuts to at least half the amount called for. 

After tasting it, the kids would have liked some tomato sauce added, 'to lighten things up,' as it is stated in the anecdote of the recipe. I agree - next time we make a gnocchi cream sauce, we will add some red sauce as well.

We drank a(nother) white wine with this dish, but I wholeheartedly believe a red would have complemented it much better. I'll let David catch you up on the wine selection. I have been the one choosing the wine for the past few V&D's (only because I have been shopping alone), but I think it is time to get him back out there making the selections. Unfortunately, I don't think I'm quite as choosy about buying the wine as about drinking it.

(David will be posting the wine review this evening).



4 comments:

  1. You are so diplomatic. Hats off to you.
    (For me the recipe was a major flop, heavy, tasted un-cooked, and not very flavorful. )
    Looking forward to David's review of the white Frey. (We had white with this meal as well...)

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  2. Thank you, in2insight. It was pretty much the same for us, unfortunately. I don't believe we've had a V&D that was such a dud. Difficult to not just blast it on the web-sphere. David will be getting on the Frey review. Soon. Promise.

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  3. I went to check out your post for V&D - and am sorry you didn't post it since you so obviously played along. Although I can't really blame you :)

    Hope the trip was loads of fun (if you are back by now).

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  4. The trip was awesome, and will update the blog soon.
    As for not posting about the V&D, well, I am just not as kind with words as you and Tami are, so will leave my thoughts for the book reviews I did write on Amazon.com and PPK. Sadly, this one recipe was the norm rather than the exception from the book.

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