Yukky Gnocchi & Yummy Chocky Quesadilla

~  Menu  ~

Gnocchi in a Creamy Tomato & Boursin Sauce

Glass of Sangiovese

Dark Chocolate & Chilli Quesadilla

Coffee

I am glad to say I don’t like gnocchi.  I have made them several times, been unimpressed and assumed I was doing it wrong.  For the sake of research I’ve ordered them once or twice when eating out and still no joy and today as a last attempt I cooked Tesco’s Finest Potato Gnocchi for lunch and didn’t like them either  – yukky gnocchi!  It is not Tesco’s fault, it seems gnocchi are supposed to be unpleasant; at first I though it was my cooking!  What a relief.

I sauced the gnocchi with a creamy mixture of tomato and Boursin and fried up some breadcrumbs in roasted garlic oil to add a contrasting texture (this is known as Pangrattato and is a lovely addition to many meals), they sure needed it.  It tasted fine but the gnocchi themselves are pretty well how one would imagine mashed potato and flour mixed together and boiled would be.  Similar to the "nothing special" krumplinudli I made the other day!

On the other hand I was abso–feckin-lutely delighted, as the Irish say, with my dessert.

Quesadillas

Many, many is the time I have turned, in a professional sense, to quesadillas to use up leftovers. These lovely crisp Mexican (or Tex Mex?) versions of a sandwich are so versatile, so quick and easy and so, so delicious. Normally the filling consists of beans, or chicken, or chilli con carne, etc, with cheese and salsa; those sort of things. 

Good idea or what?

Pin it so you don't forget!

I have a pack of flour tortillas to play with for my forthcoming book on leftovers (see below) so I thought – why not a chocky quesadilla? And then the answer came to me; no reason at all. My lunch pudding was but the work of a few moments … 

~ I chopped 3 squares (just 3) of Lindt’s dark and lovely chilli chocolate. ~ Sprinkled it on one half of a flour tortilla (plain!).
~ Folded it in half and pressed down firmly so that no chocky could escape.
~ Melted a knob of butter in a non stick pan.
~ Fried my quesadilla till crisp and golden on the outside and lovely and gooey in the middle.
~ Ate it which was rather messy but had to be done – working lunch!

Forgive my fingers, they seem to have aged whilst my back was turned!

Leftover Gnocchi ...

For supper I had the rest of the leftover boiled gnocchi fried up in olive oil and sprinkled with grated Parmesan, smoked black pepper and sea salt – this was much better, almost really good!

My Book on Leftovers

News from the future ... my book was published in March, 2013. Originally titled The Leftovers Handbook a second edition is now available called Creative Ways to Use Up Leftovers.  In it I give all the information, ideas and recipes I can think of for over 450 possible leftovers.