Last week, after nearly four years at the one job, Andy said goodbye to a pile of workmates. Only just back from Spain, there was no way I was going to be the life of any party (or surrender up the toddler to babysitters – or maybe that should be “be surrendered”?!) so I stayed in.
I had a pretty lazy day and only once shops were closing and the toddler was in bed did I discover that the cupboards were pretty bare. Normally I would have spaghetti, chilli, oil and garlic but there wasn’t enough plain pasta for dinner so I had to put my thinking cap back on.
Fortunately the freezer was home to a small bag of gnocchi (of indeterminate age, naturally), the fridge had some bacon and we have a big pot of sage in the back garden.
Now, I could have done something healthy because we always have tinned tomatoes to hand but … I wanted super quick. Taking inspiration from the countless variations on sage and butter that you find in Italian cooking I whipped up a tasty, but also not very healthy or very balanced supper!
Absolutely perfect for a night in for one. But a word of advice – you absolutely HAVE to use fresh sage. Dried simply will not work at all.
Ingredients
- butter
- 2 rashers of bacon
- fresh sage leaves, to taste
- 1 clove of garlic, crushed and finely chopped
- gnocchi, for one
Instructions
- Heat the butter in a frying pan that is big enough to fit the gnocchi in.
- Chop the bacon and add to the butter.
- Start cooking the gnocchi in boiling water.
- When the bacon starts to brown and crisp, add the garlic and the sage leaves.
- When the gnocchi is cooked (it all floats), drain and add to the frying pan with the bacon, sage and garlic.
- Give this a quick fry and then serve in a warm bowl, topped with grated parmesan and plenty of black pepper.