Today's Quick Simple Lunch: Potato Gnocchi with Pancetta, Rapini, and White Wine Sauce

Today was my day off and I wanted to take a break from studying. I was too lazy to walk to the grocery store close by so I decided the challenge I love is trying to find out what ingredients I have at home to make something tasty. I went to the fridge and was looking for some mushrooms but unfortunately did not have any. Luckily I did find some pancetta, some left over sliced onions my dad had when he made burgers, and I found a bag of rapini my mom bought this week but seems to not have used.

I remembered that last week we bought some potato gnocchi since I had a craving for it but didn't have a chance to use it. So I got my prep all done. I diced the onions, I cut some of the pancetta into Lardons, I chopped the rapini into nice bite sizes. I also placed my pre cooked gnocchi into a bowl.

One of my pet peeves is having a messy work area hence all my ingredients in nice little bowls. 

 The folllowing is my recipe:

Recipe is for 1 large person
About half a container of President's Choice Potato Gnocchi
About 2-3 Stalks of Rapini or Broccoli Rabe
One small slab of pancetta sliced
about 1 small onion diced
2 tablespoons of White wine
1 small cube of butter
1 teaspoon of olive oil
2 cloves of garlic thinly sliced

1. Get a pot halfway filled with water and let it come to a boil. When it comes to a boil add a couple generous handfuls of salt and drop it into the water.

2. Place gnocchi into the boiling salted water. It is so easy to tell when gnocchi are done cooking because they will start floating to the top of the water. That's when you take them out. A lot of people say you should rinse cold water on pasta after it's cooked but I don't do that. I like to drain the pasta but never wash it with cold water. This way there is a loss of heat. When I cook pasta I like to add the pasta into the sauce and cook it a little bit so that way it absorbs some of the sauce. Also if you rinse the pasta with cold water and add it to the sauce there is quite a loss of heat.

3. Place cooked gnocchi to the side.
4. In a heated sautee pan over medium heat, add the olive oil and butter. You add both because without the olive oil the butter would burn.
5. Once the butter has melted add in the pancetta lardons. Let it cook until some of the fat has rendered and the pancetta is browned a bit. (At this time you can add some dried red pepper flakes to give a nice kick)

6. After the pancetta has browned add in your onions and let them sweat until translucent. When they become translucent add in your sliced garlic and stir.
7. Turn the heat to high and add your cooked gnocchi. Let the gnocchi cook in the pan so that way some of the gnocchi browns from the oil and butter in the pan. This gives the gnocchi a nice smoky flavour and adds a little crispness to it.
8. Once the gnocchi has browned a bit drizzle a little bit of white wine in it. Toss the pasta together or stir in the pan.
9. Add the chopped rapini in and let it cook for a couple of minutes. You can cook the rapini until its quite tender which is how my mom likes it. I don't like it very tender I like to have the rapini crunchy still so I let the rapini cook for about 2 minutes in the pan.
10. Pour all the delicious pasta and ingredients onto a nice plate.


Optional: Shave some pecorino cheese on top and enjoy!

Potato Gnocchi with Sauteed Rapini, Pancetta and a white wine sauce

Potato Gnocchi with Sauteed Rapini, Pancetta and a white wine sauce

 This is such a simple dish and really is not that heavy. If you are vegetarian just do the same recipe just omit the pancetta! My recipe is really just a guideline. You can also add some sliced mushrooms or broccoli or anything you want!

Enjoy!!
KMW