Cheesed Gnocchi Plus Hot Pepper Salad

So I went to this produce stall today, see, and it's a little out of town but it is worth the ride because they stock local produce and are open six days a week (as opposed to the market, being open one and a half days). Anyways, while there, I bought four pounds of hot peppers (two and a half of which are drying in the oven right now), and I wanted to do something with the remaining ones and I thought "Hey, roasted red-pepper salad" (because these are rather large and not super-hot or anything) and then I thought "Oh now my oven is going to be in use for the next six hours" (peppers dry much quicker than tomatoes, which is nice) so hey, raw salad. With a side of homemade gnocchi in buttermilk cheese sauce!
Or maybe the salad is the side and the gnocchi is the main, whatever.

So, I steamed 1 1/2 pounds of potatoes (I know, I've never steamed potatoes before!) and while that was going, I chopped really thin-like two hot peppers, two portabellos, and a zucchini (I know, raw zucchini salad!). For dressing, I whipped up two cloves garlic, minced, in two tablespoons of olive oil, two tablespoons of balsamic vinegar, and half a teaspoon of nice mustard, and covered the salad and dressing separately, then got back to gnocchi.



I lacked a potato masher or ricer or anything that resembles either of those two things, so I just squeezed and punched a bowl of cooked potatoes a bunch. It was satisfying and a little messy.
OK, then add: 2 teaspoons salt, 1 1/2 cups flour, 2 beaten eggs. Combine! Knead a little but not too much, divide into maybe eight balls and roll 'em out into long ropes maybe an inch thick, then cut off bits half an inch long. Press them with a fork for effect, then put them on a plate or a tray or something. If you want to freeze em, what I've heard is that you put them on parchement on a cookie tray, freeze them for an hour, then baggy them and let them sit in the freezer until you're ready to consume.

See, like that! These is the first half of the dough, I was still working out some sizing issues.

Anyways, last to go was this buttermilk cheese sauce. The internet seemed to think it would curdle, which it did, but after adding the cheese it thickened up nicely and wasn't bad, and there's nothing intrinsicly wrong with curdling so far as I can tell besides it becoming less fun to drink and often indicating spoilage. I made a roux with butter-garlic-flour, I added the buttermilk, I added the cheese, and it made cheese sauce. OK, all together now:



So the buttermilk cheese sauce wasn't that different from regular cheese sauce. My first impression was that it tasted like cheese sauce with vinegar in it, then that it tasted like cheese sauce with balsamic vinegar in it, then I realized that I was using the fork I'd whisked the dressing with, then it kind of tasted like cheese sauce with a hint of that cultured sour taste. It was good, it was slightly more full than a regular cheese sauce, but I don't know if it's really worth doing again.
The gnocchi were great, I was a little worried but they were pretty darn good. A few had little lumps of potato but those weren't so bad as I feared. I am looking forwards to trying this frozen gnocchi later!
Also the salad was absolutely boss! Those red peppers are not very hot, but they'll be decent for flavouring things once dried and I saved the seeds and dried them separate and they can be used to selectively kick things up as many notches as required. The peppers made a lovely salad, just a little hot, and quite fresh and tasty.

Overall, quite pleased with the meal.



Also I made a mess.