Favorite Recipes: Brown Butter Gnocchi with Sage and Blue Cheese Stuffed Bread

Bear with me...I have a couple other recipes I wanted to share but they are on my other computer..the one that shut down on me and started to smoke! My cousin is hopefully going to be able to save some of those pictures so I can use them later. In the meantime, I have other recipes to share and more to come later this week/early next week.

I made this recipe a couple weeks ago. I found this recipe among my many recipes on my computer (hopefully my cousin can save those as well since I didn't back those up!) and I have no idea where it came from. The recipe originally called for homemade gnocchi but since I have several packages of pre-made gnocchi, I decided to use one of them. I also added some garlic powder to my butter for a little more flavor, instead of salt and pepper. As for the bread, I got the idea on Pinterest. I had a Pillsbury pkg of French bread, so I used that.

The gnocchi turned out amazing and I would definitely make this recipe again. Browning the gnocchi after it cooks is the key to this recipe. It makes the gnocchi have a little crunch on the outside and the result is excellent!

For the bread, I laid down a piece of tinfoil onto a jelly-roll pan and sprayed the pan with cooking spray. After I took the bread out of it's pkg, I cut slits in it, making sure not to cut all the way through to the bottom. I melted about a tbsp of butter and brushed some butter on the dough. My mom had gotten me a big chunk of blue cheese from her co-op by her place and I love the stuff. It spreads like butter and it tastes amazing. I cut off a big chunk of it and crumbled it. I put several chunks into each slit I made into the dough. After, I brushed the bread with some more melted butter.

I baked the bread according to the pkg directions and kept an eye on it as well. The results were really good, although when I make this again, I am going to use a lot more cheese!

Chunk of blue cheese...

Bread dough with butter & blue cheese....

Baked bread...

Gnocchi (4 servings):

Pkg of gnocchi of your choice or flavor
10 tbsp butter, divided
1/2 c thinly sliced fresh sage
1 1/2 tsp finely grated lemon peel
Garlic powder, to taste

Cook 8 tbsp butter (I used unsalted mainly because I didn't have enough salted butter) in med skillet over med-high until butter begins to brown, about 4 min. This proved to be a little challenging since the butter foams as it cooks and it's hard to see if it's browning so use your best judgement here. Add sage and lemon peel. Season with garlic powder or salt and pepper to taste. And yes you have to taste the butter to see if it needs more seasoning. Take the butter off the heat and place in a non-reactive bowl.

Meanwhile, melt the remaining 2 tbsp butter in large skillet; remove from heat. Bring large pot of salted water to boil. Add gnocchi; cook until gnocchi float to surface, then cook 1 min longer. Using slotted spoon, transfer gnocchi to skillet with unseasoned butter (the 2 tbsp of butter). Saute gnocchi over med-low until beginning to brown, stirring occasionally. Once browned, add the seasoned butter to the skillet with the gnocchi and heat through, 2-3 min.

To serve, spoon gnocchi, with the butter, onto plates with some sliced blue cheese bread and enjoy!

Pkg of gnocchi I used...