Sweet Potato Gnocchi with Chicken and Broccoli

Sweet Potato Gnocchi with Chicken and Broccoli

I learned to make gnocchi after eating it in an Italian restaurant in Chicago in the early 90s. I love any kind of dumpling and I love pasta, and gnocchi is basically a pasta dumpling, so what's not to love? The sweet potatoes give this dish nice color and are more nutrition than regular potatoes. I recently order gnocchi at a popular Italian restaurant and the owner told me gnocchi was kind of a feminine dish, saying that women love it. I've always maintained that the women in my life have better taste than I do anyway, so I think I'll keep ordering the gnocchi, thank you very much!

In This Menu:

Sweet Potato Gnocchi with Chicken and Broccoli – Meal Plan

Tuesday, November 2nd, 2010

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In This Menu:

• Sweet Potato Gnocchi with Chicken and Broccoli
• Simple Chopped Salad 
• desert

I learned to make gnocchi after eating it in an Italian restaurant in Chicago in the early 90s. I love any kind of dumpling and I love pasta, and gnocchi is basically a pasta dumpling, so what’s not to love? The sweet potatoes give this dish nice color and are more nutrition than regular potatoes. I recently order gnocchi at a popular Italian restaurant in downtown Springfield and the owner told me gnocchi was kind of a feminine dish, saying that women love it. I’ve always maintained that the women in my life have better taste than I do anyway, so I think I’ll keep ordering the gnocchi, thank you very much!
This week we have bananas on sale as well as Nilla wafers. As far as I’m concerned, this week’s dessert was a foregone conclusion! This is my version. If you don’t want to be hassled with making the pudding, Jello Vanilla pudding works nicely!

Sweet Potato Gnocchi with Chicken and Broccoli

INGREDIENTS

• 2 quarts boiling water
• 1 large sweet potato, peeled and diced into ½ inch cubes
• 2 eggs
• 2½ cups Best Choice non bleached/ non enriched flour plus 1 cup reserved
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 large crown fresh broccoli
• 1 whole chicken cut up
• 1 small white onion, diced to ¼ inch dice
• 2 cloves fresh garlic, minced
• 1 large, hot house tomato
• 3 tablespoons olive oil
• 2 tablespoons unsalted Hiland butter
• 1 teaspoon Kosher salt
• ½ teaspoon black pepper
• ½ cup freshly grated Parmesan

PREPARATION
Place potato in water and cook for at least 15 minutes or until VERY soft. Place eggs in a mixer or metal bowl and beat for 30 seconds until just starting to froth. When potatoes are cooked, drain and run under cold water until cooled. Drain well. Add cooled potatoes to eggs. Beat until mixture is very smooth. Add flour and alt and beat on low until a light dough is formed. Using reserved flour, lightly flour a counter top or board and pour dough onto it. Cut dough into 4 pieces. Roll out one piece of the dough into a long tube about ¾ inch in diameter. Cut tube into ½ inch pieces. Using a fork dipped in flour, gently press a piece of the dough with the fork, then roll the dumpling off of the fork and pinch the two ends together. Set aside on a lightly floured surface. This take some practice, but the more you roll , the better you will get! Repeat the process with the rest of the dough.
Bring 6 quarts of water to a boil in a large saucepan and add chicken pieces. When chicken is cooked through, remove the chicken from the broth, set aside to cool and put cooking liquid back on stove. Remove chicken from the bone and cut into 1 inch pieces. Dice tomato to ¼ inch dice.
Bring chicken broth to a boil and drop gnocchi in simmering liquid. After all of the dumplings have floated to surface, cook two minutes longer. Remove from liquid. Cool under running water if going to use later, or set aside if using right away.
Place a large skillet on stove over high heat and add oil. Saute tomato, onion, and garlic in oil until onions are soft. Add chicken and pasta. Add butter and toss well, season with salt and pepper. Pout into a bowl, top with Parmesan and serve.

Simple Chopped Salad

INGREDIENTS

• 1 head iceberg lettuce
• 1 cucumber
• 1 large, hot house tomato
• 1 bag slaw mix
• dressing
  

PREPARATION
Cut cucumber in half vertically,
then into ½ inch slices. Cut
tomato in to 8 wedges. Remove
core from lettuce then cut into thin strip. Mix lettuce with slaw mix in a large salad bowl. Dress with the Hidden Valley Ranch/ or your choice. Toss and arrange cucumbers and tomato around edge of salad.