Ben's Day Wednesday

Easy-Peasy Lemon Squeezy!

Posted on by Liz

We had a marvelous long weekend, and hope you did, too! It was so good, that I didn’t want to get back into the grind of cooking. This time, I left it to Ben to run whip on enthusiasm. “Come on, Mom, let’s get out the stuff and turn on the oven. It’s not too hard.”

Indeed. The plan was so easy today that I had no business dragging my feet. We were inspired by the Sheet-Pan Gnocchi in this month’s issue of Bon Appetit, but our ratios were very different, so I will tell you what we did. This dish was so easy, and so delicious, that if you don’t make it, we will, at best, question your sanity. Phil said that it was to be placed on the “frequent repeat” rotation.

Amazing!

Roasted Gnocchi

1 medium onion, cut in 1/2 inch wedges

2 large garlic cloves, unpeeled

1 pint cherry tomatoes, halved

2 pounds refrigerated potato gnocchi

6 tablespoons olive oil, or more, divided

1 1/2 teaspoons coarse salt, or more, divided

Freshly ground pepper

1 tablespoon lemon juice

2 cups baby arugula

1/4 to 1 cup basil leaves, large leaves torn

2 ounces Parmesan cheese, shaved

  1. Preheat oven to 425º. Toss onion, tomatoes, garlic, gnocchi, 4 tablespoons olive oil, 1 teaspoon salt, and pepper to taste in a large bowl, and transfer to sheet pan.
  2. Roast 25 minutes.
  3. Remove garlic from baking sheet, squeeze the roasted garlic innards into the bowl you initially tossed everything in, add lemon juice, remaining 2 tablespoons olive oil, remaining 1/2 teaspoon salt and pepper to taste. Mash and stir until you have a small, but hearty, vinaigrette.
  4. Add arugula, basil, and Parmesan to baking sheet. Toss. Add vinaigrette and toss to combine. Serve.

I never would have thought to roast gnocchi instead of boiling it, but this was not only quicker, it was delicious!  Roasting it with tomatoes and onions means you have some juices for flavor, and the gnocchis get a little crispy brown crust. Throw on the greens, basil, cheese, and vinaigrette, and you’ve got a meal. Start to finish, this was 40 minutes or so for us, but most of that time is effort-free! You’ve got a good 25 minutes to complain to your spouse about your day!

If I knew how to photo-shop things, I probably would. As things stand now, Ben knows he may need to hold a knife mid-slice (or mid-squash – tomatoes are an art, not a science). 
Stirrin’ the pot 
Dump!
Where’s Waldo? Can you find the one remaining garlic clove that needs to be removed and squeezed into a vinaigrette? If you can, you are highly intelligent and observant. If you can’t, you should thank your lucky stars that you’ve got better things to do.
Toss it all, and you’re good to go!
Please, Sir, may I have some more?
This weekend, Phil and I took a much-needed respite from our regular grind. We stayed at an amazing bed and breakfast in Chambersburg, and launched several aimless expeditions from there, while Sophia took care of Ben.
We loved wandering around Harper’s Ferry.
Apparently, Thomas Jefferson stood on this rock and declared the view “worth a voyage across the Atlantic.” I don’t know about that, but it was certainly worth a voyage across Pennsylvania!
I didn’t know John Brown taught e-School!

I loved hearing your sub/hoagie memories last week. Thank you so much for sharing your stories.