Guest Blogger-Homemade Gnocchi with Sausage Bolognese Sauce from Gabrielle Farias (Yes, that's my baby!)

I know. I don't usually post on Sunday's, but we had a last minute request for a Guest Blogger and I HAD to fit her in somewhere! Please join me in welcoming my youngest daughter, Gabrielle, to CEK today. Her real name is Gabrielle, but she also goes by Gabby or Gab. As you will see, we definitely picked the right name for this one. She really created a fantastic recipe. Take it away Gab...

Hi this is Gab, Carrie’s daughter! I am going to talk about some things that my Mom has made in the past year and how she got me to eat real food; as well as share a recipe I created and prepared myself (well, with a little help from Mom!). It all started last year when all I ate was chicken nuggets. Then one day I came home from school and I wasn’t feeling well because my stomach wanted real food. My mom was making steak on the grill marinated in horseradish, salt, and pepper. At first I thought it would taste gross, but my Mom made me try it so I did. I loved it and for once I didn’t want chicken nuggets!!! That was the first real meat I had had all year! (She's exaggerating of course! She also ate real chicken or shrimp. She just didn't like beef or pork because she didn't like to chew it. Ok we'll continue now...)

Then she made lime bars for dessert one night with lemon lime chicken for dinner. It was really yummy. The lime bars were very sweet and tasty, the lemon lime chicken was tasty, spicy, adventurous in your mouth (yes, she came up with this adjective all on her own!) and matched perfectly with the dessert.

One of my favorite deserts is her famous apple pie in our family. It has a little cinnamon spice to it and she uses the sweetest apples picked right off the trees. I also love all of her granola bars, like the White Chocolate Apple Walnut Granola Bar with crushed up walnuts and white chocolate. Yum!!! I made it too..YAY me!!!!  In the winter she makes peppermint hot chocolate. It's like the same thing as normal hot chocolate, but minty and extra chocolatey. For Christmas she lets my sister and I decorate the homemade sugar cookies for Santa. She also makes peanut butter cookies with a Hershey kiss on top it tastes like baked peanut butter cup with extra goodness on top. Finally, my favorite meal for dinner is her corned beef. First she boils it in beer and water then takes it out and spreads Dijon mustard on to and bakes it!

I also wanted to make something to share with you and came up with this recipe idea on my own. It was so irresistible and my mouth was watering after I tried it. It kind of reassembled my personality perfectly. (Yes, I know...I'm in big trouble with this one!) Here is Gabrielle's first recipe creation...Enjoy!

For preparation, I recommend boiling your potatoes first, then while they are cooking, prepare your sauce so you can let it simmer while you roll out the dough. We made this entire meal from start to finish in 1 1/2 hours (and I might add we didn't even start to prepare this until 5:15pm!)

Mashing the potatoes with the fork.

Homemade Gnocchi with Sausage Bolognese Sauce

For the Gnocchi:
4 Medium Sized Russet Potatoes
1/3 Cup Eggs, beaten
1-2 Cups All Purpose Flour
2 Tbsp. Pecorino Romano Cheese, grated
1/2 tsp. Kosher Salt
Prepared Sausage Bolognese (see recipe below)

Boil the potatoes with the skins on until they are fork tender. Do not cool the potatoes. Remove from the hot water one at a time, peel off the skins (carefully, they'll be extremely hot!) and using the tines from the back of a fork, gently mash the potatoes. Repeat for each potato, add to a bowl, then let cool 10-15 minutes. Form the potatoes into a ball shape, form a well and add in the cheese, egg and salt. Next add 1 cup of the flour and gently keep folding all of the ingredients together until it is all incorporated. The dough shouldn't be too sticky. If it is, gradually add more flour as needed. (It all depends on the actual size of your potatoes)

Cutting and "forking" the gnocchi.

Cut into ten pieces. Take one of the pieces and turn it onto a floured board. Gently roll lengthwise forming a log shape the thickness of your thumb. From there, cut into eight pieces (about the size of the tip of your thumb to the first joint). Gently using the back of the fork, make an indentation on the top. 

Gnocchi before it's cooked.

Repeat for all ten segments of dough. Bring a pot of water to a boil. Gently drop in the Gnocchi. They are done when they start floating, approximately 2-3 minutes. Drain the water  or pull them out using a slotted spoon and add the gnocchi to the sauce, gently mixing so not to break the pasta. Makes approximately 11-12 dozen.

(If you aren't going to cook them right away, place them in a single layer on a floured cookie sheet in the refrigerator until you are ready to do so or layer them with parchment paper sprinkled with corn meal and place in a shirt box in the freezer.)

She was just posing for effect(she's a ham that way.
She actually used a separate spoon to taste it. :)

Sausage Bolognese Sauce

1 tbsp. Extra Virgin Olive Oil

6 Links Italian Sweet Sausage, casings removed

1 Scallion, chopped

2 Cloves Garlic

1 Tbsp. Fresh Basil, chopped

3 c. Marinara Sauce (I used homemade but feel free to use whatever you wish)

2/3 c. Asiago Cheese, shredded

Kosher Salt, to taste

Fresh Ground Pepper, to taste

In a large, non-stick saute pan, heat the oil and add in the sausage. Break the sausage apart by using the back of a wooden spoon as it cooks. Once sausage has cooked and there is no longer any pink center, add in the garlic, scallions, basil, sauce and cheese. Mix well, reduce heat to low and simmer for approximately 30 minutes, stirring occasionally. 

The finished product!

Sorry if I made you read too much! I just love food so much my motto is eat sleep and eat again. I hope you enjoyed my guest blog tune in for next time for *Gabby’s guest blog oh yeah* (say in tv singing voice). 

Well I’m out, peace...

Thanks Gab~Love you honey!