Gnocchi!

So...we got home from out trip to Italy and Spain on Monday night. And ever since, I have been very much missing the delicious Italian food we had every day. Delicious! Like this.



And this. (I think Brandon gained fifty pounds in this one meal)



For our wedding, Brandon and I got a Williams Sonoma Pasta cookbook. About once a week, I sit and look at the pretty pasta pictures while eating a bowl of cereal. I have never ventured to try one of the recipes. They take a lot of time and I have a very biased husband when it comes to Italian food. I'm a little intimidated to cook pasta for him. But today, I decided I was going to try and make homemade gnocchi (little potato dumpling noodles). First I had to boil the potatoes, peel them, rice them (just learned that term), mix them with flour and seasoning, and then knead them for fifteen minutes. Then, I rolled out the dough and cut the little dumplings from it. For the sauce, I soaked grape tomato halves in lemon juice and olive oil, then roasted them for ten minutes. Next I added garlic and fresh basil and a touch of vodka sauce. All in all, the whole meal probably took three hours; I haven't spent that much time in the kitchen in the last three months combined.
But it was sure yummy!