When you're craving anything but turkey and the fixings on the days after the big holiday meal, turn those leftover mashed potatoes into fresh gnocchi.
Sauce the hot gnocchi with your favorite sauce or pesto. If you don't want to make it back out to the store, get creative with browned butter and herbs or a quick pesto.
I love saucing gnocchi with pesto for the color alone, but also for the freshness and lightness it brings to the dish.
Carrot greens are so often discarded, but they make for a delicious and vibrant pesto--you can also substitute other generally disregarded greens like radish, turnip, or beet greens--just be sure to be generous with the pine nuts and olive oil to soften any astringency.
Carrot Top Pesto
Makes about 1 cup
2 garlic cloves
1/4 cup pine nuts
2 cups packed carrot greens
1/4 teaspoon kosher salt
1/2 cup olive oil
2/3 cup shredded parmesan
Combine garlic, pine nuts, carrot greens, and salt in a food processor. Process on low speed, stopping to scrape down the sides with a rubber spatula, until the carrot greens reduce down. Return to low speed and stream in the olive oil while it processors. Remove pesto from the food processor and fold in the shredded parmesan cheese.
Mashed Potato Gnocchi
Serves 4
2 eggs
1 teaspoon kosher salt
1/4 teaspoon pepper
dash of nutmeg
1 cup cold mashed potatoes
4 ounces semolina flour (about 1 cup) plus 1/4 cup for dusting and rolling out the gnocchi
2 tablespoons unsalted butter,divided
1 cup carrot top pesto
Line a large baking sheet with parchment paper and lightly dust it with flour. Set aside.
Whisk together eggs, salt, pepper, and nutmeg in medium-sized mixing bowl. Fold in the cold mashed potatoes, lightly stirring until well combined, then gently fold in the semolina flour using a rubber spatula or your hands. Replace the dough to a flour-dusted work surface, dust hands with extra flour and gently knead the dough by hand until a smooth, but sticky, ball forms. Divide the dough into four pieces.
Use your hands to roll the first piece of dough into a rope, about 1/2 inch-thick. Keep the work surface dusted with flour, adding more as needed. Use a pastry cutter or a sharp knife to cut the rope into 1/2-inch pieces. I learned recently that each piece is called gnocco. Gently roll each gnocco downward against the back of a fork to give it ridges or indentations. Replace to the baking sheet and repeat with remaining gnocco.
Repeat this step with the other three pieces of dough, rolling into ropes, cutting the ropes into gnocco, and rolling each against a fork.
Bring a large stock pot of salted water to a boil over high heat. Once boiling, drop in the gnocchi and cook until they begin to rise to the surface, about 1-2 minutes. Remove each as they come to the surface using a slotted spoon, then set them in a colander until the remaining gnocchi have cooked.
Melt 1 tablespoon butter in a large skillet over medium-high heat. Add half of the gnocchi and cook until lightly browned on each side. Remove from the skillet and repeat with the remaining butter and gnocchi. Combine the hot gnocchi and carrot top pesto (or sauce of your choice) in a medium mixing bowl. Serve with freshly grated parmesan cheese.
