Gnocchi with Gorgonzola Sauce AND Red Pepper Tomato Sauce

A fellow foodie, and long time best friend of mine recently signed for a Gnocchi & Gnuddi Central Market cooking class. In honor of that, I've decided to make the packaged gnocchi in my pantry for possibly the last time, before I learn to make it on my own!

This is a quick fix dinner tonight, you are only really making two different sauce options. I had the idea for the different sauces after ordering a gnocchi dish at a cute Italian place last month - one was a tomato sauce, the other was a Gorgonzola cream. I couldn't decide between the two, both Mr. Max and I loved both of them, so decided to do a little of both again. My apologies, the camera battery died in the middle of this. The tomato sauce was just whipped up from things I already had, didn't get fancy with it - the gorgonzola sauce is a recipe printout I've had for a while now, I think coming from Allrecipes.com at 98 calories per serving (serving size 1/2 cup).

Grocery List:

• 1 package of tri-colored gnocchi
• Salt
  

for red pepper tomato sauce

• 2 plum tomatoes, diced
• 4 cloves garlic, minced
• 2 tbsp. tomato paste
• Red pepper flakes
• Salt and pepper to taste

for Gorgonzola "cream" sauce

• 3 tbsp. butter
• 3 tbsp. crumbled Gorgonzola cheese
• 1 green onion, minced
• 1 clove garlic, minced
• 1 tbsp. half and half

Start by pre-heating your oven to 425 degrees. Combine your dived tomatoes and minced garlic. Spray a pan with no-stick spray and arrange your tomatoes and garlic. Roast in the oven for 20 minutes.


While your tomatoes are roasting, take your gnocchi and put it in a pot with water. Lightly salt the water and bring to a boil. Once the gnocchi dumplings are soft and floating, drain and set aside.

Once the tomatoes are roasted, take them out and put them in a small pot. Add the tomato paste and then, using an immersion blender, puree the tomatoes, garlic and paste together to make a homemade tomato sauce. Season with salt and pepper, then add your red pepper flakes to taste.
Let this sit on the stove on low heat to keep warm as you prepare your other sauce.

In a small saucepan, combine the butter, gorgonzola cheese, green onion, garlic and pepper over low heat. Warm slowly for about 5 minutes, stirring often. Add the half & half to make the sauce creamier.


Once both your sauces are finished, dish out the gnocchi and top with sauce, garnish with fresh basil or Parmesan cheese. I served with a simple grilled chicken cutlet topped with Italian seasoning and Parmesan cheese over a fresh mixed greens salad.

Here we are bringing back the old-school camera phone shots to depict the finished product - Mr. Max's favorite was the red pepper sauce, my favorite was definitely the gorgonzola sauce. It was a great little dinner for a week night taking only 30 minutes to whip up!