Standing Out Yet Blending In

With the advent of pumpkins in the fall, it seems every which way you turn you find more pumpkin recipes. That being said, I had planned on making pumpkin gnocchi today, but I wanted to be different. So I used golden acorn squash instead.Really it makes just about no difference at all. They even look similar to pumpkins. I could probably fool just about anybody into believing that I made pumpkin gnocchi anyways, but the point is I didn't and my main ingredient now sounds different than those coming from pretty much every food blog out there right now (including my own a few weeks ago). I'm pretty excited about it.



What you need:
For the golden acorn squash gnocchi:
2 golden acorn squash (about 2 pounds)
2 eggs
Approximately 3-4 cups of flour
About 1/2 tsp. fresh ground nutmeg
A good pinch of salt and pepper

For the creamy avocado sauce:
2 avocados
1 cup sour cream
About 2 handfuls of fresh cilantro
2 cloves of garlic
2 tbsp. olive oil
Juice of 2 small limes
About 1/2-1 cup of hot water, preferably the water you boiled the squash in
Salt to taste

A note on this recipe: it will probably serve 8-10. Seriously, I suggest making half this unless you want to eat a bunch of it all week (which I wouldn't blame you for, it is really good and quick to make once everything is prepared).

Let's get cooking.

First, admire your ingredients. They're beautiful.

 Next, to cook the squash, boil some salt water and DO NOT cut up your squash as shown:

 Why shouldn't you peel and cut it up exactly like I did? Because it's super inefficient. It's very difficult to peel. Instead, just slice it into wedges, only removing the top, not peeling it and boiling those. Boil for about 15 minutes. And save the seeds if you'd like to roast them and eat them later on.

Once your squash slices are boiled, cool them in a strainer until you can bear to peel off the skins. Then put them in a blender container and let them cool until their temperature is something like 120 degrees Fahrenheit. Then add the eggs, salt and pepper, and nutmeg and blend until smooth. With your flour in a medium to large bowl, pour in three fourths of the pumpkin mixture and stir with a dowel if you have one.

You may need to add more flour or pumpkin mixture to get the right consistency. The right consistency is when the dough is slightly sticky on the sides of the bowl.

Next, put your dough on a lightly floured board, cut off a small piece and roll it out into a long snake. It should be fairly thin, maybe an inch or less in diameter.

 Then, chop it as evenly as you can into small lumps.

As you can see, I didn't chop too evenly. I was mainly going for speed and botched a couple pieces as a result. Normally I wouldn't try to just move quickly, but since I could simply mix the irregular pieces back into the dough and re-roll them, I thought it was an ideal time to work on quickness.
To keep your cut up gnocchi from sticking to each other, flour them in a large mixing bowl and toss them to coat. Don't put too many in the bowl, if you stack them too high their own weight will make them stick together and you'll have to reshape them all. You can freeze them as you go to help them remain independent as well. I also recommend freezing as the way to store them.
To cook your gnocchi, boil some salt water and toss in a couple handfuls of them. Stir immediately as you add the gnocchi to prevent them from sticking. When they start to float, remove them with a slotted spoon (it should only be a couple minutes).

Now for the sauce. Pretty much all you need to do is combine all ingredients in a blender container.
Scoop your avocados out

 Toss in a bunch of cilantro (I used about twice what's pictured)

 Add everything else except the water and blend. Add the water as you blend to prevent the sauce from getting too watery. If this does happen, just put it in a sauce pan and cook it down for a bit to re-thicken it. Mmmmm... Green.

 Toss some of your gnocchi in a bit of sauce and plate on something red so that it looks all pretty like this

The warmth of the squash pairs wonderfully with the fresh creamy taste of the sauce. The avocado adds a great richness to the sauce and the acidity of the lime keeps the richness in check so it doesn't taste just taste like a mouthful of cream. A great plate of food indeed.

I'd like to extend huge thanks to Taste With The Eyes (http://www.tastewiththeeyes.com/) and Manger (http://mimithorisson.com/) for being awesome sources of information and for making cool food.

Thanks for reading!