Homemade Gnocchi Soup

Quirky's Homemade Gnocchi Soup

Homemade Gnocchi has been on our list of things to make since Quirky was a little girl and a huge Curious George cartoons fan, and a huge fan of the little cat named....Gnocchi. She thought it was hysterical that the little cat was named after pasta, and she thought it was hysterical when Curious George tried to cook. Maybe that's why she likes to help out in the kitchen now. So why has it taken us so long to finally make our gnocchi? Fear. Plain and simple. The word gnocchi even sounds intimidating. I was absolutely positive it would be both difficult and time consuming. Last week however, the perfect opportunity came for Quirky and I to give this a try.


Dork would not be home for dinner, leaving only the two of us for dinner. Dork is not a big soup fan, so this made it a perfect time to try our hand at not only Gnocchi, but our own version of Olive Gardens Gnocchi Soup. I did a little research and figured out the basics of making Gnocchi and then did what we do a lot of the time...winged it. Turns out that making gnocchi is not that hard, it is however very time consuming when you are cooking with Quirky. She does not work quickly. Anyway...an afternoons work was not so bad for the delicious soup that we made, and because we made such a huge batch we were lucky enough to eat it again!

Scrape out all of the baked potatoes into either a food processor or a stand mixture. Add the garlic and mix or blend until potatoes are smooth like mashed potatoes. Add the egg and add the flour 1/2 cup at a time until the dough comes together. 

Next comes the fun part...rolling out the gnocchi. You can roll it out into rope length and then cut them or you can have a little more fun a roll each one up by hand. That's the route we chose. Some of Quirky's gnocchi were a bit bigger than meatballs, and they were definitely not all uniform size; but she had a blast making them.

While the gnocchi is being formed put on a large pot of salted water to boil. Bring it to a good rolling boil and begin dropping the gnocchi in. When they rise up to the top and begin to float it means they are done...this took about 3 minutes for ours. As they rise to the top, scoop them out and set them aside to allow them to drain.

Well...the gnocchi is done and if your are a glutton for punishment then you can continue on to make a thick delicious gnocchi soup, or if easy is the name of your game just toss them in Olive Oil and some seasonings of choice and eat. Once again, however, we chose the more time consuming route...soup.

Lightly sauté the broccoli and carrot mixture with the minced garlic in the tbs of butter. Stir a 1/2 cup of the flour into your veggie mixture and continue to sauté for a few minutes. Slowly begin to add your chicken broth, and next begin adding your skim milk and butter. Bring it to a simmer and stir constantly so it doesn't begin to stick. Add in your homemade gnocchi, seasonings, salt and pepper. It should begin to thicken up, if it does not add in small amounts of flour while stirring briskly. Continue to simmer and stir for about 20 minutes. Serve sprinkled with shredded cheddar cheese and hot crescent rolls. Yum!