Gnocchi with Bacon, Mushrooms, Peas and GorgonzolaFinally, I have a decent dinner photo to post. This dish is an offshoot of one I usually make when I have leftover ham. In fact, I bought the gnocchi on a Trader Joe's shopping trip before the holidays, anticipating having leftover ham from Christmas dinner. Long story short, I didn't. But I thought I'd be able to make a similar dish with bacon instead, so that's what I tried.
I started out by dicing 4 slices of bacon and setting them to brown in my large skillet. When they were about halfway cooked, I threw in 1/2 of a large shallot, diced, that was leftover from a meal last week. After cooking for a few more minutes, I spooned out the excess fat, then added 8 oz. of sliced mushrooms (also leftover from a dinner last week).
As the bacon/shallot/mushroom mixture was cooking, I was also boiling water for my gnocchi. Unfortunately, everything sort of came to a head all at once and the bacon/shallot/mushroom mixture ended up a little overcooked and dry. I salvaged it by adding a splash of chicken broth to moisten it back up before tossing in my drained, cooked gnocchi. (That's why the pasta-potato dumplings have such a browned color.) I poured in 1/2 a bag of frozen peas and heated through. To finish, I seasoned to taste with salt & pepper, then sprinkled over about 1 oz. gorgonzola cheese crumbles. The cheese got all melted and creamy, and almost gave the dish a saucy consistency.
Next time, I'll try to time things a little better (and use lower heat under my bacon & shallot mixture), but I can't complain about the results at all. Delish!
Totals:
$1.99 - gnocchi
.50 - 1/2 package frozen peas
$1.49 - mushrooms
$1 - bacon, cheese, shallot
$4.98 for dinner for 3
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