Brown Butter Gnocchi with Spinach and Pine Nuts

This looks and tastes incredibly elegant for a dish that takes less than 20 minutes to prepare. It’s good enough to serve to company, but fast enough that you won’t mind throwing it together after a long day at work. Although this is a “Winter Recipe” according to Cooking Light, it was surprisingly light and fresh tasting, even with the butter sauce. I certainly wouldn’t mind eating it throughout the Spring and Summer months! If you’re unfamiliar with gnocchi, it’s a pasta made primarily from potatoes, with flour and sometimes other ingredients mixed in. I was excited to find that my grocery store carries whole wheat gnocchi, which has slightly better nutrition information than the average variety.  This is a great dish and the Parmesan cheese finishes it off beautifully. I absolutely recommend this for any occasion you’d like to whip up something that looks impressive with minimal time and effort.

Brown Butter Gnocchi with Spinach and Pine Nuts

Yield: 4 (scant 1 cup) servings

Ingredients:

• 1 (16 oz) package of vacuum-sealed whole wheat gnocchi (you can use regular potato gnocchi if you can’t find whole wheat)
• 2 tablespoons butter
• 2 tablespoons pine nuts
• 2 garlic cloves, minced
• 10 oz fresh baby spinach, torn
• ¼ teaspoon salt
• ¼ teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
• 1 oz Parmesan cheese, freshly grated (1/4 c)

Directions:

1. Cook gnocchi according to package directions. Drain and set aside.
2. In a large sauté pan, melt butter over medium heat. Add pine nuts and cook for 3 minutes or until butter and pine nuts begin to brown. Add garlic and cook for 1 minute. Add gnocchi and spinach and cook for 1 minute, stirring constantly, until spinach is wilted. Stir in salt and pepper. Divide evenly onto four plates and sprinkle each serving with 1 T Parmesan cheese.

MyWW SmartPoints per (scant 1 cup) serving: (SP calculated using the recipe builder on weightwatchers.com)

Green: 10 SmartPoints/ Blue: 10 SmartPoints/ Purple: 10 SmartPoints

Weight Watchers Points Plus:
8 per serving (P+ calculated using the recipe builder on weightwatchers.com)

NUTRITION INFORMATION:
309 calories, 42 g carbs, 1 g sugar, 12 g fat, 5 g saturated fat, 11 g protein, 5 g fiber (from myfitnesspal.com)

slightly adapted from Cooking Light’s 91 Easy Winter Recipes 2011, Canadian Edition