Interviews with Charlie: the fine art of cutting gnocchi

Wendy has all but dropped her last nap of the evening and sadly,  our ‘Charlie-and-Mama-time’ cooking dinner dates are coming to an end.  I thought I’d post about it, since Charlie and I whipped up his favorite meal, “Gnochi Soup”  the other night.   aside: the international foodie in me cannot even begin to describe my delight when the words ‘gnocchi soup’  are chanted over and over with as much excitement as if it were ice cream or pizza or spaghetti!)  Despite its somewhat unusual name, there is little for a toddler tongue to get hung up on in this comfortable soup.   So I thought I’d share our version of it and save a few memories for later at the same time.   (and also send a big ‘ol thanks to my mom for forwarding me the original recipe !)

What I love about this soup is you can follow the basic pattern with whatever meat and veggies you have in the house.  It turns out great even when I don’t have an onion, or wine or stock on hand and everyone loves to eat it.  Plus, making the gnocchi is a lot like playing with playdoh.  Perfect for toddler cooking! 

Gnocchi Soup

Ingredients:

1lb meat cut into bite-sized pieces (chicken or beef will do, I imagine bacon would also be delicious), 1 onion coarsely chopped, 2-3 cloves garlic peeled and smashed, 1 turnip peeled and chopped or 3 stalks celery chopped, 3-4 carrots chopped, a cup or two of dark leafy greens (spinach, kale, etc) chopped, 1 C wine, 4-6 C stock or water, thyme or other herbs to taste, salt and pepper to taste.  One recipe of gnocchi.

Directions:

Sauté meat with 1-2T olive oil in a large soup pot on high heat.   Stir it very infrequently so that it gets nice and brown.  When the meat is browned on most sides (still raw on the inside is fine) remove it from the pan with a slotted spoon and set aside. [to save time and keep your toddler entertained, chop up your veggies and tell a good superhero story or two while the meat browns.]

Into the hot  pot, add onion, carrots, turnip or celery, and garlic.  Let the veggies sauté on high heat for a few minutes until they get a little browned.  [Close supervision and  long handled spoons held with mittens or oven mitts allow even the most fool-hardy toddler to safely participate in this action.] 

Add 1 cup wine or water and scrape up the stuff on the bottom of the pan with it.  (I think the technical cooking term for this is deglazing…but Charlie didn’t know it until I told him—and he probably has put it straight out of his mind in favor of being able to remember “the really fast superhero guy who runs so fast you can’t see him and wears a red costume for banging down bad guys?  Yeah, I ‘member his name is Flash, Mama.  Yeah, because he is so fast.”) Any who.  So the soup.  and cooking with toddlers.  Yeah!  So after you are done deglazing the pot,

Add in 1 t thyme, 1t salt, leafy greens (unless you are using spinach-- add that right before blending) and another 4-6 cups of water or stock  (enough to float your veggies with lots of wiggle room). 

Bring to boil and simmer until the veggies are soft~15min.  [while this cooks, make up a recipe of quick gnocchi—(this is a toddler tested recipe, you can add the ingredients in any order, pick out egg shell quite easily and salvage their measuring errors with with a little extra water or flour at the end.  Just watch it on the baking power!)]  Blend all the veggies and stock together until no veggie part is discernable.  (Here is where the college tuition I paid for learning color theory in art class is paying me back.  It turns out that colors opposite each other on the color wheel, such as green and orange, make brown when they are mixed together.  This soup ends up tasting and looking like it is just meat and gnocchi in brown gravy, even though it has all those fabulous, nutritious veggies in it! )  I highly recommend using an immersion blender!  If you don’t have one, just use your blender and part of the broth (and share the angst of having to wash out all those blender parts with your close loved ones to convince them to get you an immersion blender as your next gift! )  I think it is my most often used and beloved appliance!   [Don’t forget to let your toddler push the button—making lots of noise while sister is sleeping is certainly a draw!]

Now, add the meat back into your broth and bring to a boil.  Simmer until meat is tender~15 min.  [while the meat simmers cut up your gnocchi]  Charlie thought he would demonstrate this step for you, though he seems to think you bake them…this is not the case: 

Five minutes before eating, plop that gnocchi into the broth.  When it rises to the top it is ready to eat.  Serve your soup with lots of super hero stories.   It turns out babies love gobbling down gnocchi soup, especially when it was made by their big brother!