Chicken Gnocchi Soup Helps Chase a Cold Away

Here I sit at a Starbucks, sipping my drink and blogging.  The Boy is at baseball practice (inside a nice warm gymnasium).  When he is done with that practice, I will pick him up and take him to another one...such is the life of a baseball mom!  Of course most kids in this neck of the woods play hockey but not the Boy!  I find that I am quite all right with that.  Of course, if he love hockey, I would be all right with that too.  As long as he gets to do something he loves, it is all right by me!  I really didn't get too much done this week in the way of blogging. I was hit head on by one of the nastiest head colds around!!  I will once again be able to sleep without the aid of Nyquil!!

That was one heck of a head cold!!  I am still trying to shake the remains of this nasty cold that hit head on last week...whew!  This one seemed to stop me dead in my tracks!  Last Saturday I felt the beginnings of a sore throat coming one.  I assumed that it was a bout of tonsillitis starting up but alas, it was merely the head cold to end all head colds!  I felt like having some homemade soup!  Soup sounds easy enough, except I still hadn't replaced the goods lost in the great auxiliary fridge debacle!  Yes, that is correct, I still haven't fully recovered from losing auxiliary fridge.  Especially on big grocery shop days when I need a spot to chill things before I can cook and bake my way ready for a new week.

But I digress, where was I? Oh right, I had no homemade stock!  What I did have though was a turkey carcass in the chest freezer left over from Christmas!!!  Along with some salvaged veggies, I had the makings of a homemade stock going on.  This really isn't a difficult thing to make.  I mean as long as you are home anyways, what bother is it to have a ginormous pot of goodness simmering away on the stove?  The basic recipe for a turkey stock can be found here.

Once this luscious pot of goodness is ready, it is just a few more simple steps to make a soup, honest!

Chicken Gnocchi Soup

• 1 small onion, sliced thin
• 1 carrot, diced or sliced thin (I sliced some baby carrots)
• 1 stalk celery, sliced
• 1/2 cup corn kernels (I used frozen corn)
• roasted chicken, cooked and diced (I bought a rotisserie chicken from the store and used the dark meat for the soup)
• Gnocchi (I had some in the freezer from my Gnocchi making expedition)
• 4 cups (1 litre) homemade stock (chicken or turkey)
• 1 tbsp oil
• salt and pepper to taste

In a pot, heat the oil and saute the onion, carrots, and celery.  Season with salt and pepper.

Once the veggies are about half way cooked and starting to soften, add the stock and bring to a boil to finish cooking the veggies.

Add the gnocchi (mine were still frozen but just toss them in either way) and reduce the heat to a simmer.

Add the chicken and the corn.  Simmer until the chicken is heated through.

Taste for seasonings, adjusting if necessary.

This is a very simple, yet tasty soup.  Perfect for soothing a sore throat, a head cold, or just for warming up!

Until next time, stay warm and eat well.

Pepper mill R2 D2 approves this soup!!

You Do The Gnocchi Pokey and You Turn Yourself About.

Gnocchi are tasty little potato bundles of Italian dumpling goodness. I have had them in both in Italy and in local restaurants. In Italy I remember soft, pillowy dumplings that seem to go with any sauce that has been served with them. The gnocchi I ordered at a local establishment here were kind of tough and chewy so I didn't enjoy them as much as I thought I should have.

Therefore, I have been wanting to try making gnocchi for quite some time so I figured, why not today? I browsed through my cookbooks but everything with the word gnocchi in the tittle was basically a recipe for the sauce to go with already made gnocchi. Well, Food Network came through for me! More precisely, Mario Batali! The recipe itself is really so simple, the most trouble I had was forming them. I did end up with some pretty funny looking gnocchi but they were darn tasty!!

Ok, maybe I had one more bit of difficulty, I don't have a food mill or a potato ricer. I looked at the store for one but I really didn't feel like buying one just to try one recipe. I am sure I will eventually graduate to wanting one and using one, but right now, I am okay without it. I adapted and was able to push the boiled potatoes through a sieve with a wooden spoon and it worked!!

Gnocchi
By: Mario Batali on Food Network

• 3 pounds russet potatoes
• 2 cups flour
• 1 egg
• large pinch of salt
• canola oil

Scrub and boil the potatoes with the skins on until tender.

Put a new pot of water on to boil so you can cook the gnocchi as you make them.

You will also want to put a large bowl of ice and water nearby to shock the gnocchi and stop the cooking process.

While the potatoes are still warm, pull the peels off and pass through a food mill, potato ricer or through a sieve. Make a pile of the potatoes on the counter.

Make a well in the centre of the potato mound.

Sprinkle with all of the flour.

Add the egg and the salt to the well.

Using a fork, beat the egg, slowly incorporating the flour and the potatoes.

Once you are able to, use your hands to finish mixing all of the potatoes and flour into the mound. Knead with your hands for about 4 minutes. The dough will be soft but should feel dry. I found I had to add another 1/3 cup flour to the dough as it was too sticky to work with.

Roll a fist sized ball of dough into a 3/4 inch diameter snake and cut into pieces.

Funny shaped gnocchi

Use a fork to roll the dough pieces to get some funky lines & grooves onto the gnocchi.

Carefully place the gnocchi into the boiling water and boil until they float to the surface.

Transfer the floaters to the ice bath.

Once cooled, transfer the gnocchi to a baking sheet with some canola oil on it to keep the little tasty bundles separate.

These little tasty bundles of gnocchi goodness are tasty straight from the baking sheet!! Of course a little sauce never hurt either!

The book I got my inspiration from for the sauce is "The Italian Way, Cooking with the Delucas" Deluca's is an the Italian place to buy all things Italy. They run a deli, a cooking school, a restaurant....all done with a love and enthusiasm for food! I really do need to make time to head over there soon! (Sounds like a blog field trip is in the works!!)
I didn't follow the recipe exactly as stated in the book (shocking, I know) but I still wanted to tell you where this idea came from.

Gnocchi with mushrooms and sausage
Adapted from The Italian Way, Cooking with the Delucas

1 pound hot Italian sausage, casings removed
1 small onion, diced
1 pound cremini mushrooms, sliced
1 28 oz can diced tomatoes
salt and pepper to taste
Parmesan cheese for garnish

If you are using a packaged gnocchi (with is perfectly alright) put a large pot of water on to boil so you can cook the gnocchi before you add it to the sauce.

Heat up your favourite skillet and add the sausage meat, breaking it up. Scramble fry the meat, crumbling as you go.

Add the diced onion and cook for a couple minutes longer.

Add the sliced mushrooms and cook another 5 minutes or so.

Add the diced tomatoes and cook for about 10 minutes. Let it get all bubbly and allow the flavours to get all happy, happy.

Add in your already cooked gnocchi and stir to cover everything in sauce.

Serve up heaping portions with some Parmesan cheese sprinkled on top.

I must say that these gnocchi were so soft and pillowy and tasty to boot!! Very reminiscent of the ones I had in Italy! Sooooo incredibly tasty!!!

Until next time, stay warm and eat well!

But wait!!!

Here is episode 3 of Little Kitchen on the Prairie.