Gnocchi a la Parisienne - FFWD

This is from the FFWD January schedule but I just got around to it this  week. This is my favorite kind of dish - it has cheese in it! We really liked this one; it is like macaroni and cheese or bread pudding but with a lighter texture.

So, this dish is made of gnocchi (made without potatoes) that are poached, transferred to a Parmesan-coated casserole, covered with béchamel sauce and Gruyere, and then baked. I wish we had photographed this as soon is it came out of the oven because it had puffed tremendously. Unfortunately, it deflated after just a minute or so.

I made the gnocchi ahead of time and left them on a parchment-lined tray so that it would be easier to add them to the pot of boiling water. I will do the same thing next time, however, I will freeze them first; they stuck a bit to the parchment & it was a bit of a mess. I used a 7” x 9” pyrex casserole which was good: all the gnocchi fit in and there was more surface area for the cheese topping...so I was able to add more cheese!

Next time I am going to add more milk to the béchamel (it was a little too thick - maybe some Sauvignon blanc instead?) and a bit of cayenne (instead of nutmeg) and also some grated cheese. My husband and son thinks that that will be too much cheese, but I think that having cheese in the sauce will be good...we will find out :).

I am also going to try this with cheddar, Monterey jack, and roasted green chiles some time soon (and double the recipe!).