LAMORINDA WEEKLY | Sage brown butter sauce accents fall flavors in this gnocchi dish


Gnocchi with Roasted Pumpkin and Cranberries in Sage Brown Butter Sauce Photo Susie Iventosch

This is a fun dish to make, especially at this time of year when cranberries and pumpkins are in season and the fall flavors are all the rage. We love brown butter in almost anything, but this sage brown butter complements the pumpkin and cranberries so well, I couldn't resist using it for this recipe. Browning butter takes a little extra time, but it's so worth it, and you can brown a whole pound of butter at one time, and refrigerate it for other uses like cakes or cupcakes, sauces, and for dipping French bread.

All you need to brown the butter is a saucepan, low heat on the stove and about 10-15 minutes. You want to brown it slowly, because otherwise you could run the risk of burning it. We make vanilla cake with buttercream frosting using brown butter and it makes vanilla cakes so much more interesting and tasty.

When I first set out to create this gnocchi recipe, I attempted to make my own pumpkin gnocchi, but after mine turned out rubbery and not all that tasty, I decided to start over with pre-packaged gnocchi. They really know what they are doing and it was perfect for this dish. There are a lot of companies that package gnocchi, but I was at Trader Joe's, so that is the one I used. Even though it seemed a bit dry when I first opened the package, it cooked up beautifully fluffy and soft and it only took about 3 minutes to cook in boiling water. This makes the recipe guaranteed to turn out and is so much easier than making your own gnocchi!

Gnocchi with Roasted Pumpkin and Cranberries in Sage Brown Butter Sauce

(Serves 4)

INGREDIENTS

Gnocchi:

1 lb. packaged gnocchi (Trader Joe's make a really good one that is slightly bigger than 1 lb., but you can also find packaged gnocchi at your local grocer.)

Sage Brown Butter:

4 tablespoons butter, cut into pieces

1 teaspoon fresh thyme leaves

2 sage leaves, finely minced

1/2 cup dried cranberries

Roasted Pumpkin:

1 sugar pumpkin, stem and seeds removed and cut into 3/4-inch wedges

2 tablespoons olive oil

Several grinds of sea salt

Several grinds of pepper

Garnishes:

1/2 cup dried cranberries

2 oz. goat cheese, crumbled

1/2 cup grated Parmesan

Minced sage leaves and fresh thyme leaves

DIRECTIONS

To make the brown butter, place butter in a saucepan with a light colored bottom if possible, and if not just use a regular saucepan. Add minced sage and thyme and cook over medium-low heat until the butter begins to sizzle and bubble and eventually you will see little brown solids around the edges and at the bottom of the pan. This should take anywhere from 10-15 minutes, depending upon the water content in your butter and the temperature of your burners. I've seen it take 5 minutes and I've seen it take 25 minutes, but do keep your eye on it, because the butter can go from beautifully brown to burned in a heartbeat! Once it's brown, add 1/2 cup of dried cranberries to the herbed butter and cook over low heat for about 5 minutes longer. Remove butter from the heat and set aside.

To roast the pumpkin, preheat the oven to 400 F. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper, or spray with cooking spray. Lay the pumpkin wedges out on the baking sheet and brush both sides of each wedge with olive oil and season with salt and pepper. Bake for about 20 minutes, or until the edges start to brown and a knife can be easily inserted into the flesh of the pumpkin.

Remove from oven. When cool enough to handle, remove skins (or if you like them you can keep them on . they are edible and add extra color), and cut all but four of the wedges into bite-sized pieces. If you have enough, save the wedges to use one for a garnish on each plate.

Cook gnocchi according to instructions on the package. Meanwhile reheat the sage brown butter on low heat. When the gnocchi are cooked (probably about 3 minutes in boiling water) strain them through a colander and then add them to the saucepan with the sage brown butter and cranberries. Add the cubed pumpkin pieces and toss all together well.

Serve on plates and garnish with extra dried cranberries, goat cheese crumbles, grated Parmesan, snipped sage leaves and thyme leaves. If you have extra roasted pumpkin wedges, place one on each plate when you serve it.