Fried Gnocchi

A while back I tried making some sweet potato gnocchi. I had some sweet potatoes that were going to go bad, and while making normal gnocchi I mixed some mashed sweet potatoes into half of the mix. I also decided to try freezing the dumplings for the first time.

Unfortunately, this first attempt failed. When I tried to boil my sweet potato gnocchi they lost their shape and clumped together. I still had some dumplings in the freezer, so I needed to try something else.

I thought that the dumplings would keep their shape better if I fried them. I heated up some canola oil on the stove in a frying pan. I didn't want to use a ton of oil, so the oil was just deep enough to cover the bottom of the pan.

I let the gnocchi brown on one side (5-6 min) before flipping them over. This was careful work because there was a lot of oil splattering. Next time I am going to use a deeper pan! Thank goodness I had a splatter shield to protect me.

The gnocchi come out looking like mini tater tots.

The next big question was an important one... how do I serve fried gnocchi? I thought that I would turn this into a kiddy dinner by serving it with a side of manara sauce. (Well, salad isn't very kiddy, but I wanted to counteract all of that starch and oil!)

Keith had some other ideas, and while I was trying to not get burned (or to set the house on fire) he was setting up our table with candles!

Gnocchi is one of Keith's favorite meals. I will need to try something else next time I try sweet potato gnocchi, but I now know that frying them is a decent save.

Arancini

Take a look inside an arancino!

Keith has craved arancini (fried rice balls) every since we came home from Italy. He found a recipe that indicated they were not outside our ability to recreate. To make our first attempt easier, we started with store bough risotto from Trader Joes. After Keith defrosted the risotto, we had to let it sit for a while to cool off so we could help it form into the arancini balls.

We mixed cheese and some bread crumbs in with the risotto, and then formed it into balls. Well, Keith formed the rice balls, I covered them with bread crumbs so most of the crumbs would end up on the rice, and not our hands!

We considered baking the arancini, but decided that it was worth making them properly (fried) the first time. Next time I may try baking them to see if they will still be tasty.

Keith had to give this experience a thumbs up!

We used a lot of paper towels to soak up the excess oil after the arancini were fried.

Some arancini and a side of marinara. What could be better than this?

Overall, the experience was a success! It was a little sad to realize that Trader Joes actually sells arancini bites, but I still think that our homemade ones were superior!