Father's Day Meal 2010: Ragout w/Sweet Italian Sausage & Homemade Gnocchi

Wishing a belated Happy Father's Day to all the dads out there and any mommy's doing double time too!

On Sunday night I was originally supposed to make tuna tofu patties but decided to postpone that for the next meal.  I wanted to make something special for my husband so I made homemade gnocchi and a ragout with sweet Italian sausage.  I had to use the sausage soon since we got it at the farmer's market a week ago from a vendor that's there every week called Jacobsmuhlen's http://jacobsmuhlens.com/index.htm. They have great tasting sausages in about a dozen different flavors and this vendor is at every Hillsboro Saturday Farmer's Market during the season. 



A while back my brother had been visiting and he bought some fresh chorizo from Jacobsmuhlen's and he made a fresh gnocchi and fennel dish.  My husband liked the chorizo and gnocchi but not fond of the fennel.  He wanted me to make a dish similar to it with the sweet Italian sausage and gnocchi so I had to ask my brother who is a professional cook for some advice.  He then told me to make a ragout, add the sausage, and make some gnocchi.  My brother gave me directions on how to make the gnocchi but I also googled a recipe which I found on Allrecipes.com.  I decided to follow the recipe from the website as a test trial which I'll create another post about my experience making gnocchi for the first time.

When I made the ragout it wasn't from a specific recipe, my brother just told me what it was made of and I just ran with the idea. Overall this was a fairly easy meal to prepare, it was the gnocchi that took the most time.  This meal turned out really well and flavorful that my hubby gave this a go ahead for meal next time around.


GNOCCHI
Ingredients:

2 potatoes

2 cups all-purpose flour
1 egg

Directions:

Bring a large pot of salted water to a boil.  Peel potatoes and add to pot.  Cook until tender but still firm, about 15 minutes.  Drain, cool and mash with a fork or potato masher.  Combine 1 cup mashed potato, flour and egg in a large bowl.  Knead until dough forms a ball.  Shape small portions of the dough into long "snakes".  On a floured surface, cut snakes into half-inch pieces.  Bring a large pot of lightly salted water to a boil.  Drop in gnocchi and cook for 3 to 5 minutes or until gnocchi have risen to the top; drain and serve.

RAGOUT
Ingredients
3 green bell peppers, diced
6 Roma tomatoes, chopped
2 tbsp garlic, minced
1/2 onion, diced
8 links Sweet Italian Sausage, sliced and cooked
pepper
salt (optional)
oil

Directions:

Saute garlic and onions in oil until onions are almost translucent.  Add tomatoes, mix and let simmer till nearly soft.  Add bell peppers and sausage,mix and let simmer 5 minutes.  Add prepared gnocchi, mix and add pepper to taste. You may add salt if your sausage doesn't have much flavor, I didn't have to since the sausage I got was really flavorful.  Let simmer 5-7 minutes.

Here's the very yummy outcome.