Friends with gardens are one of the best people to have in your life. I, personally can’t grow anything if my life depended on it, but my friend Stephanie has a green thumb. So when she gave me fresh herbs and kale from her garden I was over the moon. I decided to try something new and incorporate kale in a non traditional way. Kale salads just seemed so boring so why not make kale gnocchi?! And then add it with a scrumptious brown butter sage sauce! It ended up turning out amazing and even Moudi loved it! He said it’s very similar to a Nigerian dish called danwake and it reminded him of it while eating it. (The texture and feel and poppableness). Anyways, if you want a healthy fun way to amp up your regular ol’ gnocchi, this is the way to go!

Ingredients:

• Kale leaves (Roughly 2 cups, stems removed)
• 1/4 cup water
• 1 cup ricotta cheese
• 3 egg yolks
• 3/4 cup Parmesan cheese
• 1 tsp salt
• 1/4 tsp black pepper
• 1 cup all purpose flour
• 1 stick of butter (4 oz)
• 16-18 sage leaves
• 1/2 tsp crushed red pepper
• 1/2 tsp garlic salt

Directions:

1. Place an empty pot on the stove over medium/medium high heat until warmed up.
2. Add 1/4 cup water, kale and cover. Turn off heat and let it steam for ~2-3 min.
3. In a blender add the steamed kale and ricotta cheese.
4. Place mixture on a paper towel and gently press the mixture with more paper towel to remove excess moisture.
5. Scrape the mixture into a bowl with a rubber spatula.
6. To the ricotta mixture add 3 egg yolks, 2/4 cup Parmesan cheese, 1 tsp salt, 1/4 tsp pepper, 1 cup flour and mix well until well combined.
7. Cut dough into 8 even pieces.
8. Roll out each piece into a log.
9. Cut log into roughly 1 inch gnocchi pieces. (You can press and roll each gnocchi piece on a fork to create ridges but it’s optional)
10. Dust the gnocchi with some flour so they don’t stick.
11. Boil water in a large pot and salt accordingly. Once boiling, add gnocchi and once they start floating to the top, remove them into a bowl.

Butter sage sauce

1. In a stainless steel pan place 4 oz of unsalted butter and melt over medium heat.
2. Once the butter starts to foam, add sage leaves and continue stirring with a rubber spatula.
3. When you start seeing the brown bits on the bottom (these are milk solids crucial in making a brown butter sauce)
4. Toss in gnocchi into the pan until well coated.
5. Add crushed red pepper, garlic salt, and top with Parmesan cheese. Enjoy hot!