cooking challenge week sixteen: home made gnocchi

This week's cooking challenge is something I've been wanting to make for a long time. Really Great Gnocchi. I rarely order this dish in restaurants because it's so simple, and yet, at the same time, I absolutely love it. Go figure. The few times I've attempted it in the past, my meal has ended up a gluggy mess. Urgh. So perhaps it's actually a deceptively simple dish?

The entree was also a challenge, in that my pastry for tarts and pies just never works. I either get it too crumbly or too buttery, and get so frightened by the prospect of another pastry failure that I just buy factory made. No longer, friends! I think I've finally hit on a recipe that's allowed me to master the art of pastry! It was a sweet pastry dough recipe from a Donna Hay magazine, so I just took out the sugar and vanilla and added salt, pepper and nutmeg, and it was good. We started with a tart of sundried tomato, caramelized onion and goats cheese, served with balsamic reduction and caramelized onions.

I served the lovely little gnocchi dumplings with a creamy fennel and blue cheese sauce. Oh. My. Goodness. So nice. I'm salivating just looking at the pictures. Would have been great with a few capers for some more "zing" but the blue cheese I had to hand - a Gorgonzola Dolce - has a mean kick to it so this worked well.

Make this, make this, make this!