Butternut Squash Gnocchi with Cheezy Alfredo Sauce

This meal was totally last minute, but turned out to be AWESOME. My awesome mom gave me half of a baked butternut squash when I was there one day and I am so grateful! I was able to use that instead of roasting chunks of squash, which is what the recipe calls for. In fact, I'll give you the recipe but I honestly just glanced at it. I didn't really follow it. Oops. ; ) I just mixed the squash in a bowl with some AP flour and salt & pepper and then rolled it into ropes on a floured counter. It was still sticky, so I think I'll try a different method next time. I worked in a restaurant where we had butternut squash gnocchi and I watched the line cooks make it many times. They mixed the squash and flour with seasoning and then scooped it into a pastry bag. Over a pot of water, they would squeeze the bag and snip chunks of gnocchi off using kitchen scissors. The gnocchi floats to the top of the pot when done. I really should've tried this first, but sometimes you have to get it wrong before you can get it right. : ) 

So for the Alfredo sauce, I did actually use a recipe. It does call for a few ingredients that may be unusual, but they're totally worth picking up and having in stock. Like nutritional yeast (weird name, totally awesome stuff), raw cashews (which can be pricey, but worth it), tahini (which is paste made from toasted sesame seeds) and tamari ( I just used Shoyu brand soy sauce). I always have Earth Balance vegan butter on hand, too, cause it's great stuff. You can use it for basically anything you would use butter for. And now that I discovered this sauce I will be using all these items A LOT more. I actually made a half batch of the sauce and I had enough for 3 meals (2 with gnocchi and 1 with pasta. Yum!)

So here you go!

Vegan Butternut Squash Gnocchi    (I just used this as a loose guideline)

from One Taste Rule! 

1 large butternut squash, seeded, peeled and cut into even-sized pieces

salt

fresh black pepper

about 2/3 cup all-purpose flour

about 1/3 cup cake flour

Pre-heat the oven to 400 degrees. Spread the squash out on a sheet pan and bake until soft (25-45 minutes, depending on the size of your pieces).

Mix the two flours.

Puree the squash in the food processor (you might have to do it in 2 batches). Add salt and pepper to taste.

Flour your work surface and place the squash on it. Using a bench scraper, start to work the flour into the squash (this ensures that you don't over-mix). You might not need all of the flour. Your dough should be sticky, but workable.

Divide the dough into 6 portions. Roll each one into a rope, about 1/2 inch thick. Cut into 1/2 inch pieces.

And now for the sauce:

Hurry Up Alfredo

from Epicurean Vegan

Sauce:
1 C soy milk ( I used almond milk)
1/3 rounded raw, unsalted cashews
1/4 C nutritional yeast
3 Tbs tamari (or soy sauce)
2 Tbs Earth Balance vegan butter
1 Tbs tahini
1 Tbs lemon juice
2 tsp Dijon mustard
1/2 tsp paprika
1 pinch nutmeg
1 pinch salt
Black pepper, to taste
2-4 garlic cloves
I added 1/2C Tofutti Sour Cream and used SMOKED paprika and WOW! It was so creamy and flavorful!

DIRECTIONS:

To make sauce, mix all sauce ingredients in a food processor or blender until smooth. (What I did is transfer the sauce to a small saucepan and heat–this is also when I added the Tofutti sour cream. Then I just ladled the sauce on a serving of pasta or gnocchi). 

Note: for leftovers, I don’t recommend microwaving them. Keep sauce separate from pasta leftovers and reheat sauce in a pan over the stove and nuke the noodles or gnocchi. Sauce gets too dried out otherwise.

This meal is now one of my absolute favorites and I'm glad I can share it! (once I got around to it. ha.)  I had a side of roasted cauliflower with my gnocchi and it really hit the spot. For the cauliflower, I just chopped a head of cauliflower into bite-sized pieces, tossed them in olive oil, sprinkled salt & pepper, and then roasted on a sheet pan at 400F until slightly blackened in places and crispy, stirring every 10 minutes or so. I used to hate cauliflower, but then I just discovered I didn't like steamed, mushy cauliflower. Roasted is amazing. Give it a try, if you've sworn you don't like it, like me. Enjoy!! : )