Twist on Lasagna

Last week I made a ton of spaghetti meat sauce and I didn't really have a plan for it until I saw a package of gnocchi in the pantry. I thought I would make a dish similar to lasagna but I would use gnocchi instead of pasta.

If you are unfamiliar with gnocchi, they are potato style pasta in the form of a dumpling. I have not tried to make this myself (although it is on my list of things to do) but I find the boxed variety to be a good substitute for a quick meal.

Little gnocchi

I boiled a box of the gnocchi for just a few minutes. I wasn't sure if I could just put the uncooked gnocchi in the pan since it was going to be baked, but I went on the safe side and boiled them for a few minutes.The next layer was a combination of a container of ricotta cheese, an egg, a cup of mozzarella, half cup of Parmesan, a few tablespoons of chopped parsley, a few tablespoons of chopped onion, and a chopped up piece of garlic. Mix it all up and spread it over the gnocchi.

Next comes the sauce.... I had a combination of turkey and ground beef sauce that I had made before. I just kept throwing stuff into the pot to make it, so I don't have exact ingredients, but has ground beef, turkey, can of fire roasted tomato's, about a half of an onion, a few cloves of garlic, tomato paste, some spices... cook it all up and let it simmer for about 1.5 hrs.

Or you can use plain old spaghetti sauce from a jar if you want an even quicker dinner!!

Once it was all layered I cooked it for about 40 minutes in 350 degree oven. This does not look very pretty once you scoop it out of the pan, but it is quite good!! And it makes for excellent leftovers! Next time I'd like to add some spinach or a layer of zucchini and squash