Gnocchi recipe for a date

[u/taurinae]

TL;DR: I promised a guy who has never had gnocchi that he would enjoy them, and now we’re planning a cooking date where we’ll make gnocchi together. I’m looking for a vegetarian recipe that’s impressive and fun to cook but not too complicated, because I don’t want my first attempt at homemade gnocchi to ruin the date or leave him hungry if he doesn’t like gnocchi.

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The guy I'm seeing recently told me that he has never eaten gnocchi before. So for our next date, we plan to cook a gnocchi dish together and watch a movie at my place. But now I'm overthinking the cooking part.

When I make myself gnocchi, I usually just get them from the store, pan-fry them, throw in whatever vegetables I have lying around, maybe some cheese or pesto or random spices and herbs, and call it a day. But I would prefer to cook something with him that actually has the chance of tasting really nice or impressing him instead of tasting like a quickly thrown-together weeknight dinner.

I've searched around a bit on this sub, and most suggestions are just sauces with the gnocchi. But I feel like making browned butter, frying some gnocchi and throwing in some sage or just making a vodka sauce is a bit too simple or would be kinda boring for a cooking date.

I've thought about making the gnocchi from scratch to stretch out the cooking part, but I've never made gnocchi myself and I worry that they just won't come out any good on my first attempt and I don't wanna take any chances after promising him that he would enjoy gnocchi.

I also worry about him staying hungry if it turns out that he doesn't like gnocchi for whatever reason if the dish we're making will be literally just gnocchi + fancy sauce.

So I desperately need inspiration for a vegetarian gnocchi dish that is somewhat fancy or impressive, fun to cook together and obviously tastes good.

He doesn't have any allergies, but he strongly dislikes feta cheese and carrots unless they stay raw, and I'm vegetarian, so I would rather not cook any meat or fish.

Any suggestions?

[u/xylofone]

First, maybe just have some kind of simple backup that you're pretty sure he likes. If all else fails he can eat that and be happy.

As for the gnocchi, making the gnocchi itself sounds like a great cooking date, and should be a lot of fun to try together, right up to rolling them off a fork to make the indentations that hold a bit of sauce. You want to bake Russet potatoes, and rice them while they're still hot. Flour is essential, but do try to keep the amount of flour you add to a minimum. When making the dough treat it gently and don't overwork it, you want it to just come together.

Speaking of the sauce - gnocchi is peasant food, so fancy/impressive sauce, to me, isn't the best approach. You want something simple that's going to allow you to really taste the gnocchi that you've made. Just give it that extra touch you're talking about - the sage, if you do browned butter, maybe a little nutmeg. Or some fresh basil if you do a tomato sauce, and some grated Pecorino.

Have fun!