Outside-In Stuffed Gnocchi

I make things from scratch. I shop the outside aisles of the grocery store. But. A recent trip to Trader Joe's had me spying this new entry -- "Outside-In Stuffed Gnocchi". Your basic frozen gnocchi with tomato sauce and mozzarella on the INSIDE. It's a novel idea and I just had to try it. Heating instructions included a stovetop version and a microwave version. Since I'm not a fan of mushy gnocchi I went with stovetop. Directions were a tad oblique. Most of the steps are broken down into "1 or 2 minutes" or "3 or 4 minutes". If you follow all the shortest guidelines it is five minutes of preparation but could be nine minutes if you go with the higher end of timing, which could make for a significantly different dish. Nonetheless, I followed the directions. First, you can saute in olive oil or butter. I chose both -- cuz, duh, it's good that way. Then you add four tablespoons of water. Which is silly. Four tablespoons is 1/4 of a cup. Why don't they just say that? Then you are supposed to cover the skillet but stir it frequently for three to four minutes. Which is it? There is no point in covering it if you are stirring it "frequently" over a few minutes. At the end it says to add the sauce of your choice. Since there is already sauce and cheese in the dish I just gave it a healthy sprinkle of olive oil and garlic because you really can never have enough garlic. After plating I finished the dish with salt and a black and red pepper mix.

Bottom line: It was good but very much middle of the road. The skillet method gave the gnocchi a good texture -- ever so slightly crunchy -- leaving the insides pillowy soft. Color (as seen on the picture) was good. It did seem bland though, making me grateful for adding the pepper. I checked the ingredients. It wasn't so much a tomato sauce inside as just ... tomatoes. So, okay. The cheese was mozzarella but who knows of what quality? Lastly the cooking process did cause a number of the gnocchi to split leaving nicely chewy, browned cheese chunks worth scraping off the pan. It was interesting. But not worth another look. I came, I cooked, I enjoyed. Next time I go with traditional gnocchi and sauce on the outside.

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