Roasted Veggies and Gnocchi

 

I've never actually counted how many times I've mentioned my horrible photography skills on this blog- but here's one more time.

This is one of those recipes that is more like a method.  Use whatever you have on hand.  This is just the stuff I had laying around.

Roasted Veggies and Gnocchi

Obscene amounts of olive oil

1 package gnocchi (any flavor)

1 container grape tomatoes

1 container baby bella mushrooms

2 cloves fresh garlic- minced

1 block boursin (any flavor)

salt/pepper

balsamic glaze

Preheat oven to 450. Cover the bottom of a 9x13 casserole dish or sheet pan with olive oil.

Dump the gnocchi in the dish and scoot them around in the olive oil.  You want enough on them to really coat them.

You can put the tomatoes in whole, but I like to cut them in half to make sure lots of the juice melts with the olive oil.  This is the base of your sauce.

Slice the mushrooms and add them to the dish.  Add lots more olive oil and mix everything together really well.  Don't be shy with the olive oil.  Those fresh mushrooms are gonna suck up most of what you put in there. Sprinkle the minced garlic over everything, and grind plenty of salt and pepper on it.  Mix everything again.

Now take the block of boursin (or you can use a block of feta) out of the package, clear a spot smack in the middle of the veggies, and plop it in there.  Drizzle some more olive oil over it- seriously.

Now take the balsamic glaze and add as much as you want to the top of everything. I suppose you could also wait until the whole thing's done to do this- it just didn't occur to me until right now.

Slide the whole mess into the preheated oven and leave it there about 30 minutes.  I usually don't time it- I'm looking for some char on the tomatoes and the edges of the cheese. 

When the kitchen smells insane and you can't stand it anymore, take it out of the oven and stir everything together.  It will look awful- but believe me, what it lacks in beauty, it more than makes up for in personality.

Notes on other options...

• I used to make this dish with pasta.  You can put all the veggies and cheese in the dish and roast it while boiling noodles.  Then just drain the noodles and dump them into the veggies at the end. 
• I stopped doing this because I figured out that if I used gnocchi, I only had to dirty one pan.
• Any veggies will do. Any.  Broccoli.  Brussels Sprouts.  Asparagus.  Squash. The possibilities are endless.
• Lots of different cheese will do as well.  I love feta in this.  I would stay away from fresh mozzarella, though.  It gets kinda rubbery and (to me) ruins the texture of this.
• Instead of using fresh garlic, you could just dump in a jar of prepared pesto.