One of my favorite store cupboard ingredients has to be ready-made potato gnocchi! They come in really handy for all sorts. I tend to use them just as I would cooked potatoes much of the time.
Pan-fried potato gnocchi is especially delicious! You can use them as a delicious dish or as I have done here today, as one half of a lazy, hearty and tasty supper for two!
This is a delicious adaptation of a recipe I love which is found in Tessa Kiros cookery book entitled, "Apples for Jam." That has to be one of my favorite cookbooks, and one of the few that I chose to bring back to Canada with me.
One of the reasons I love this book so much is because it is filled with simple recipes that are very family friendly and easy to execute. I can be rather a lazy cook it seems. Although I do love both to cook and to eat, I try hard to get in and out of the kitchen as quickly as possible most of the time.
Don't get me wrong, I am not opposed to pulling out the stops when it comes to cooking for guests, or for special occasions. When it comes to ordinary every day meals, however, quick and easy is generally my rule of thumb.
There is a fabulous recipe in that cookery book for sautéed potatoes and egg. Its one of our favorite things to make on Sundays after church. Potatoes are peeled and boiled until tender, and then dropped into a mixture of hot olive oil and butter.
The fat is flavored with bashed garlic cloves and fresh sage leaves. They really impart a lovely flavor to the fat and in turn really give the potatoes a lovely flavor when they are cooked in it as well.
The potatoes get all golden brown and crispy edged, the middles remaining meltingly tender. The sage leaves are also quite tasty when they are fried crisp like that. (Don't worry if you can't get fresh sage. You can easily use a bit of dried sage in its place. But fresh is better if you can get it.)
Once the potatoes are all crisp and golden brown you drop a couple of large eggs into the middle of them and cook them until they are crisp edged as well. DELICIOUS!
Quick and easy as well.
The good news is that you can cook potato gnocchi in much the same way! Yay!! I love potato gnocchi. To be honest, using a package of potato gnocchi is even easier than using regular potatoes! Its also a lot quicker!
If you use refrigerated gnocchi, there is no need to boil them first. You can simply just drop them into the hot oil. I have never used the sweet potato gnocchi for this, but I think they would also be incredibly delicious as well.
I always like to use large free range eggs. I like to use RSPCA approved if I can get them. I know if they are RSPCA approved then they truly are free range. I have no desire to support an industry which is cruel to animals for whatever purpose.
It has been my experience that quite often what masquerades as free-range hens are not much better off than caged hens. True, they are not in cages, but they are often kept in pens in huge numbers. Often the conditions are not at all what you think they are or should be.
When I was a much younger woman, my first husband came from a farming family. I often used to work in the egg grading house at the weekend, grading the eggs. They had a huge battery of laying hens. I never ventured beyond the doorway to see inside the battery. I am sure if I had of done my heart would have broken.
This was some 46-47 years ago now, and what was seen as being acceptable back then is certainly not acceptable now. Things have changed a great deal and I am happy for that.
If you are lucky enough to know someone who has hens or even if you have laying hens yourself, those are the best eggs of all! Happy eggs from happy hens!
With beautiful big yellow yolks. Sometimes even a double yolker. Now that is an extra special treat.
I love the way the eggs cook in this dish. All ruffle edged and golden brown on the edges as well. I like to leave the yolks a tiny bit runny if I can.
All the better for dipping. Toast. Gnocchi. Fingers. (Oops did I just say that out loud? I think I did!!)
A dusting of freshly grated Parmesan cheese is drifted over the top of the eggs and the gnocchi, completing the dish. The quantities I have given is for two servings, but you can easy double this up if you wish.
If doubling every thing up however, I do recommend cooking it in two separate skillets. That way nothing is crowded in the pan and everything gets perfectly golden and crisp as it should do. This is the perfect lazy day supper!
You are sure to find this to be so, so, so very tasty! Puffy little potato gnocchi, gilded until golden brown in a mixture of olive oil and butter infused with sage and garlic.
Two fresh organic free range eggs broken over top and fried until the edges of the eggs are crisp, the golden yolks still runny and just waiting for your fork to dip one of those little gilded gnocchi in.
Pan Fried Potato Gnocchi & Egg
Yield: 2
Cook time: 20 MinTotal time: 20 Min
This makes a hearty, quick and simple supper for two. A variation on my regular posh egg and chips recipe.
Ingredients
- a generous pound (500g) of refrigerated potato Gnocchi
- 2 TBS good quality olive oil
- 1 TBS butter
- 2 fat cloves of garlic, peeled and bruised and left whole
- 3 springs of fresh sage
- 2 large free range eggs, at room temperature preferably
- sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
- Finely grated Parmesan Cheese (grate it yourself, preferably)
Instructions
- Put a pot of lightly salted water on to boil. Place the olive oil and butter in a large nonstick skillet along with the garlic and sage. Heat gently while you cook the gnocchi. (Do not allow it to brown.)
- Cook the Gnocchi according to the package directions. Once they are done and float to the surface, scoop out with a slotted spoon and drop into the infused and heated oil/butter mixture.
- Turn the heat up and cook, stirring occasionally until they begin to turn golden brown and the sage leaves crisp up. If the garlic looks like it is going to burn, lift it out and place on top of some of the gnocchi. Make two hollows in the bed of gnocchi and drop an egg into each.
- Cover with a lid and cook over medium low heat, just until the whites are set. Season to taste with some sea salt and freshly ground black pepper.
- Serve at once, divided in half and placed onto heated plates. Sprinkle some cheese on each serving. The gnocchi is delicious dipped into the egg yolks.
Follow my blog with Bloglovin
This looks so delicious Marie. We buy our eggs from the local farm, free range, always fresh, big, snd helps support local business.
ReplyDeleteWhat a blessing. I am on the lookout for one here! I think we should all buy local and Canadian whenever we can! xoxo
DeleteThese look delicious, Marie. Perfect for a Sunday morning breakfast, perhaps with some crispy bacon. Last year I was starting a new carton of eggs and the two I chose each had double yolks. Turns out, all twelve eggs had double yolks. That's never happened before or since. I always consider a double-yolked egg good luck. Love and hugs, Elaine
ReplyDeleteHow lucky is that! I think one double yolker is lucky, a full dozen and you hit the mother lode Elaine! I would have been buying a lottery ticket with all that luck! Love and hugs! xoxo
DeleteTried with Cauliflower gnocchi too and it’s just as amazing! :)
ReplyDeleteOh that does sound good. I have never tried any kind of gnocchi but potato. You have inspired me to want to try cauliflower gnocci! Thank you!
Delete