Comfort Food: Sunday Dinner

Happy Labor Day Weekend!

I have spent my Labor Day weekend with friends, but also spending some quality time on my own decompressing.  I tried to do a friend a favor and let him move in to my home.  It was a horrific mistake and after a month, I had to give him the boot.  While at the same time I was entertaining British house guests for almost 2 weeks.  I reclaimed my home Thursday night and let me tell you, 2 cans of Febreze and a whole lot of sage smudging and I still feel like bad spirits are still lurking in my guest bedroom.  I may need to hire a Wiccan priestess ... or a witch doctor ... or an exorcist.

Today, I was supposed to go to a barbecue at my lovely friends (JS and TS)'s house.  But 2 weeks of partying with Brits have also led me to seek some much needed detoxification time as well.  I decided to stay in and have some Lily-time.  Unfortunately a divine message circumvented that plan (a blog post for the future) and instead I spent most of the day cleaning and organizing instead of sitting on my couch vegetating. 

So after several loads of laundry, with BRAVO TV's "The Real Housewives of New Jersey" marathon playing in the background (oh RHONJ- how I love you so!); I knew it was time to make a late dinner and pat myself on the back for some much needed domestic productivity.  But what to make?  What to make?  Earlier in the week, I had stocked my freezer with some lovely items from St. Petersburg, Florida's Mazzaro's Italian Market.  I've lived in some amazing cities with a variety of ethnic markets, but I find that in Tampa Bay I have to go a bit further and hunt more to find quality ethnic food staples.  Mazzaro's is worth the drive.

For dinner, I made Mazzaro's handmade asiago stuffed gnocchi (which I pronounce No-key, but have heard a zillion different ways to pronounce it).  I topped the gnocchi with Mazzaro's Vodka Sauce.  I never really got into gnocchi because I had never had it properly made.  It always tasted like leaden balls of dough.  But then one day I had the gnocchi bolognese at Pazzaluna Urban Italian Restaurant and Bar in St. Paul, Minnesota and I realized that proper gnocchi should be light, fluffy and melt in your mouth.  Pazzaluna still has my favorite gnocchi in America.  I've never made gnocchi before - or in this case, even heated up gnocchi before.  But after a very industrious day of cleaning and organizing, I figured I could tackle some gnocchi.  I gently placed the little balls into a pot of boiling, salted water for 7 minutes.  Up popped the little gems.  I scooped them out with a slotted spoon and lightly coated the asiago stuffed gnocchi with the Vodka sauce.  Now a quick word about Mazzaro's sauces - they are absolutely delicious.  They do a wide variety from muffuletta olive salad, smoked fish dip, bolognese, pesto -- and my favorite their vodka sauce.  The asiago stuffed gnocchi was nice - light, not heavy.  It wasn't as fluffy as my favorite Pazzaluna gnocchi, but the melted cheese inside was a decadent touch.  The vodka sauce added more creaminess, more richness and an overall "wow" factor to the taste buds.

My Sunday dinner while watching "The Real Housewives of New Jersey" was the very first time where I was eating something that looked better than what the Italian stars of the show were eating.  A very nice Sunday dinner indeed!