Gnocchi with Butternut Squash, Mushrooms, and Sage

The triumvirate of butternut squash, sage, and brown butter mixes well, particularly stuffed in ravioli or stirred with gnocchi. This dish is a great winter primi, but its light enough to serve in the summer, too—swap the butternut for summer squash and squeeze a little lemon on top immediately before serving. This recipe calls for 12 ounces of gnocchi, which is about one store package, but gnocchi is really easy to make. Even better, you can make gnudi—gnocchi of flour and cheese and no potato.

Serves 2. Making more or less is easy, but make sure your saute pan in the last step is large enough for all the gnocchi. Use two if needed.

Ingredients:

12oz of gnocchi or gnudi (about 50 pieces)
One 1.5lb butternut squash (about one medium sized gourd), peeled and diced into 1/2-inch cubes
A handful of shiitake mushrooms, cleaned, de-stemmed, and cut into 1/4-inch slices
6-8 small sage leaves
1 shallot, minced
4 tablespoons, in 1 tablespoon servings, unsalted butter
pinch dried thyme
2 teaspoons Italian parsley, roughly chopped
grape seed oil (or other vegetable oil)
sea salt, to taste
freshly-ground black pepper, to taste

Bring a large pot to simmer. Add salt and return to simmer. Add gnocchi and simmer but do not boil. Once the gnocchi rises to the top, cook for two more minutes. Drain well and set aside.

Heat just enough grape seed oil over medium high heat to coat the saute pan. Add one tablespoon of butter. Brown it lightly. Add the squash, sage, and a couple pinches of salt. Cook, stirring often and browning all sides, until tender, about 4 minutes. Drain over paper towels. Carefully set aside the sage leaves for garnish.

In a clean saute pan, again heat a small amount of oil over medium high heat. Once very hot but not yet smoking, add the mushrooms and saute for about one minute. Add one tablespoon butter, the shallot, thyme, a pinch of salt, and pepper to taste. Saute until the mushrooms are cooked, about three more minutes. Drain over paper towels.

In a clean saute pan, again heat a small amount of oil over medium high heat until hot. Add one tablespoon of butter and brown. Be careful not to burn. Once brown, add the gnocchi to the saute pan. Season with several pinches of salt and black pepper to taste. Toss the gnocchi so as to brown on all sides. Once crisp all over—about two minutes—add the squash and mushrooms. Allow the flavors to mix and the vegetables to come up to temperature, about 30 seconds.

Using a slotted spoon, plate the gnocchi, squash, and mushrooms. Add the final of tablespoon of butter to the pan and thoroughly brown. Add the parsley and let saute for just a few seconds. Spoon the browned butter over the plated gnocchi. Garnish with the sage.