This was the dish (from California chef Suzanne Tracht) that ignited our deep love of hand-made gnocchi. And oh, that love is deep indeed.

There are a lot of ingredients in the recipe (found here) but it is not as difficult as it may seem. We couldn’t find grouper so we went with mahi mahi, a close substitute.

Right away, I set about making the gnocchi which is essentially just mashed potato dumplings. If you are purchasing gnocchi from the store, stop it! Set aside an hour, make some yourself and freeze them. Then just pop them in boiling water for about 3 minutes, put your sauce of choice on top and enjoy the potatoey, fluffy, pillowy goodness. Store bought gnocchi are heavy (leaden, really) and grainy and dense and gross. I told you, the love of hand-made gnocchi is out of control.

While I was mixing the potatoes, flour and eggs and forming them into gnocchi dumplings, K was making the white wine and chicken stock broth, and tossing in the bacon, mushrooms, peas and parsnip to simmer. We didn’t go with the scads of fancy mushrooms called for in the recipe, instead opting for good, hearty baby portobellos.

The fish was browned in a pan then heated in the oven for about 10 minutes. The gnocchi was boiled for about 2 minutes and then the whole dish was assembled with the broth and veggies under it and some bacon crumbled over it.

It was delicious. Not at all fishy, light, clean and with that salty bacon to finish everything off. Amazing. This dish has “spring” written all over it and when I think of the word fresh this dinner comes to mind.  

Roast Mahi Mahi with Bacon, Peas and Parsnip