Parsnip gnocchi with mushroom and kale sauce

A few months ago, I read a recipe for parsnip gnocchi with mushrooms on the Not Eating Out in NY blog.  Tonight, I made them.  This recipe allowed me to use a couple of my infrequently used kitchen tools: a potato ricer and a gnocchi board.

Confession: Although I've had the gnocchi board for almost 14 years, I've never used it until today.  I bought it in Italy, in a little shop in Peschici, while visiting a friend and her family.

I followed the recipe in the blog, adding in the optional nutmeg (in my mind, nutmeg is never optional).  I doubled the recipe, so I could freeze half of the uncooked gnocchi for a dinner at a later date.

I found that I needed to boil the parsnips much longer than the 2-3 minutes in the recipe.  At 10 minutes, they were fork tender, but after exercising many muscles to squeeze the ricer with the plate with the largest holes I had, I think it might have been better if I had boiled them a bit longer.  The ricer is worse for the wear, with the attachment of the plunger to the handle a bit bent.  Hopefully it'll still be fine for later potato use.  But if it's not... I happen to have a spare one.  You see, I already owned a potato ricer when my friend (the same one mentioned above), gave me another.  So I have another potato ricer (or schiacciapatate in Italian) waiting in reserve in its box in the cabinet, just for a moment like this.

After mixing the dough, I finally used the well traveled and well stored gnocchi board:

I did not fry the gnocchi after boiling as the recipe had described.  It was late and we wanted to eat.

I modified the sauce a bit, adding some chopped kale, tossing it in for the last minute or two to let it wilt.

We ate it with some (okay, much more than some) grated Pecorino Romano. 

Verdict: At the start of the meal, husband said he wasn't sure what he thought about the dish.  By the end of the meal, he said it had grown on him.  I liked it, but should have made the gnocchi smaller; they ended up about 2 inches long.