Been a little crazed lately. Was out of town for a few days on business (most of it without wifi), and was rather sick on top of it. FINALLY turned the corner and felt like I needed to cook a nice healthy dinner for us.
Turned to VegetarianTimes.com, and decided I had a taste for mushrooms. And pasta. Mushrooms, Gnocchi and Brussel Sprouts? Hrrrmmm…well…never been a fan of brussel sprouts, but recently I’ve seen a lot of them on various cooking shows. Decided it was time to try.
I carefully read the recipe and comments (comments are good for finding out good tweaks an fixes even with 5 star ratings), and started to chop away!
___________________
Serves 6
- 116-oz. pkg. frozen gnocchi
- 2 Tbs. butter
- 2 tsp. olive oil, divided
- 1 lb. cremini mushrooms, quartered (4 cups)
- 8 oz. Brussels sprouts, thinly sliced crosswise (3 cups)
- 1 clove garlic, minced (1 tsp.)
- ¼ cup shaved Parmesan, for garnish, optional
DIRECTIONS
1. Heat butter in nonstick skillet over medium-high heat. Add gnocchi, and cook 4 to 5 minutes, turning often, until browned. Transfer to large bowl.
2. Pour 1 tsp. oil into pan, and add mushrooms. Cook 7 minutes, or until mushroom liquid has evaporated. Season with salt and pepper, if desired, and transfer to same bowl as gnocchi.
3. Pour remaining oil into pan, and add Brussels sprouts. Sauté 5 to 7 minutes, or until sprouts are crisp-tender. Add garlic, and cook 1 minute more. Return mushrooms and gnocchi to pan, and sauté 2 minutes, or until warmed through. Serve garnished with Parmesan, if desired.
_____________________
First off, the comments mentioned that the recipe needed more salt, and possibly some onions. I added diced shallots…half with the mushrooms, and then half near the end with the garlic. I also used more butter than called for. The olive oil was nice, but things dried out pretty quickly in spite of my adjusting temperature.
It all looked alright and smelled actually quite good.
BUT
- Though the magazine and other commenters were wild about this frozen gnocchi method, really it had much to be desired. The end result done by the instructions was slightly undercooked gnocchi that was not up to a good temperature, that tasted like it sat around for a while. Which it did. SOLUTION? Maybe make the pasta the last step, start with thawed gnocchi, and start with a blazing hot pan to get the desired result of crispy outside, soft inside.
- Definitely needed to be better seasoned. First of all, of course, use more salt, and then George suggested a hit of hot pepper flakes. That was a good idea. And then maybe a squeeze of lemon before serving to cut the bitterness of the brussel sprouts.
- Need a more flavorful cooking liquid. The recipe calls for cooking down the mushrooms until dry, which I thought was odd, and so did George. I left some liquid, and as I mentioned, I added some more butter, some shallots, and I also made an early garlic addition. BUT I was timid because I didn’t want to mess with it too much. I should have gone ahead and messed with it more. Next time, start with the butter, sweat the shallots in the butter, add the mushrooms until the onions soften, add garlic, and some salt. George also suggested chicken stock, which I thought was a GREAT idea, but this is vegetarian after all, so if we
want to be legit, vegetable broth. - Maybe roast halved brussel sprouts and add at the end instead of thin-slicing them? I am an inexperienced sprout eater, so I didn’t know what “good flavor” meant for them. George said that the cooking method made the bitterness stand out in a bad way…all the things people DON’T like about brussel sprouts were highlighted in the dish.
- Perhaps this is best as a side, not an entre. If done right, it could go nicely with a nice slice of roast pork, or maybe with some pulled pork mixed in? Yeah, yeah. VEGETARIAN TIMES. It’s really hard to do…
Nothing I hate more than spending money on ingredients, spending my evening cooking, and then sitting down to something that just plain didn’t turn out right. I obsess over how people are liking meals I cook probably to a fault. I try not to take it personally, but DAMN I hate when I don’t hear the yummy noises.
Ah well. I’m going to have to bust out a tasty classic next time, or turn to my Cooks Illustrated (aka America’s Test Kitchen aka Cook’s Country) stash. Never failed me yet!
xo
en
