I love Gnocchi.  It is a perfect little potato pasta.  Little pillows of goodness.  You can cheat and buy them premade or make your own from scratch.  It is hard at all, just time consuming.  I will save that recipe for another time and guess what?  You can make Gnocchi with any type of root vegetable, pumpkin, prosciutto or cheese. Yummy. Thank you to my Facebook friends for asking for the recipe behind the picture I posted Saturday night.  This is easy, simple and quick.

Gnocchi with Pumpkin Cream Sage Sauce and Grilled Shrimp (Serves 2-3 dinner or 4 small appetizers)

Ingredients: 1 Package of premade gnocchi. (Not sure of the weight but the size is usually standard)

Sage to taste. Leaves or ground fresh is best. 1 pint of heavy cream (You can use light cream or fat free cream)

1/2 stick butter (Don’t cheat on this)

Parmesan cheese, fresh grated or shaved is even better.

6-8 large/X-large raw shrimp. Peeled and deveined

1/2-3/4 cup of canned pumpkin. Pure pumpkin, not pie filling

1 package of baby spinach.

Salt & Pepper to taste

How to do it: In a small saucepan, melt the butter and add the sage until they slightly brown and you can really smell the combo of the butter/sage. Add the cream and let it simmer on low.

Take the baby spinach and sauté in butter until wilted.  Keep it aside.

Prepare the shrimp for grilling.  Baste with a little olive oil and pepper. Crank the grill and grill them until they are pink.  Hold tight.

Meanwhile boil the water and a pinch of salt until it is rolling.  Hold tight again.

Go back to the sauce in the small pan and begin adding the pumpkin very slowly tasting as you go until you get it just right.  How?  Taste it, I don’t care what anyone says, just don’t double dip the wooden spoon.  It should look light orange and rich with the sage visible. Simmer low-medium.  No boil!

Now add the gnocchi and watch it until it floats, usually 2-3 minutes.  Do not overcook, they fall apart and Italian women chefs in Heaven will haunt you for your blatant disregard of my instructions. Drain the gnocchi and return them to the pan.

Add the sauce from the small pan along with the grilled shrimp.  Be patient.  Stir and mix and stir and mix so that the grilled taste transfers to the sauce.  Sprinkle with Parmesan cheese.

Take the wilted spinach and add to each plate.  Scoop the gnocchi and shrimp with the sauce over the spinach.  Sprinkle with more parm  as needed, and it is ALWAYS needed. Perfect.

Now if you really want to jazz up the meal, take some Perreca’s dough and roll it out into a round pizza pan as you would if making a pizza.  Melt some butter and keep it aside.  Cook the dough about 4 minutes at 425 degrees.  Take it out, coat with the melted butter and sprinkle with ground sage and pumpkin pie spices.  Bake it again for another 6-8 minutes. Cut into strips.  You can use this to dip in that yummy sauce. And there it is.

Contact me if you need help, cooking or eating it!!