While attending church one Sunday we got into a conversation with the mom of a young family who very excitedly invited us over for dinner the following evening so she could pick our brains about traveling full time. Trade information for good company and amazing food? No hesitation. When asked if we’d like Italian or Mexican for dinner, I randomly chose Italian since we had just had burritos the previous evening. Boy did I pick right. Her husband’s family is Italian and over the years she has challenged herself to cook the part. In fact, there’s a little rivalry between his full-bloodied Italian Grandma and herself that I found quite amusing.

She made something called Gnocchi, and I watched in fascination as she rolled, cut, and pressed these weird looking pasta/potato/roll looking things before boiling them in water and covering them with the most delicious sauce EVER. My kids were also big fans, so when we ran into the Gnocchi all packaged up and pretty on the shelf at Costco they BEGGED me to get them.

“But I want to try making them from scratch,” I said. “Scratch always tastes better.”

“No, mom. This will be WAY faster. PLEASE?” Andrew replied.

Sigh. Okay. Twist my arm. I texted my new friend for the recipe and she came back with a list of ingredients and “Well, I just sort of make it up” instructions. Perfect. I never measure anything anyway. Basically the recipe is a combination of a marinara and alfredo sauce. Just pick your favorites and mix them together and voila!

So, here’s my “non-recipe” plus a fun little video of how we actually made it in the Airstream. Buon Appetito!

Gnocchi Sauce (all ingredients are extremely approximate – use your best judgement)

2 tbsp butter
3 garlic cloves
1/2 small onion
2 tbsp Italian Seasoning
2 tbsp Flour
8 oz can tomato sauce
1 can diced tomatoes
8 oz Cream Cheese
2 tbsp butter
1 tsp Chicken Bullion
2 tbsp milk

Saute garlic and onions in butter until translucent. Mix in Italian Seasoning and flour. Add tomato sauce and diced tomatoes. Stir until combined. Add cream cheese in chunks and stir until melted in. Add butter & chicken bullion. Add milk a little at a time until sauce is the desired thickness. Heat through and serve over Gnocchi.