While having a chat with IKD my BFF Steph we talked about easy recipes. You know, the kind of simple cooking that takes under 5 minutes and under 5 ingredients. This kind of cooking is especially important on days like today. It’s roughly 92 degrees right now. I needed something that takes minimal face time in front of the stove and isn’t too heavy. I’m even too hot to think of something witty to say about this post. Regardless, I was hungry and needed something to eat, like, an hour ago. What could I have? Gnocchi with Herbed Brown Butter! This is based on a Giada De Laurentis recipe who if I knew her in person would probably be my 3rd BFF after Ina Garten and Steph of course. I love this womans recipes like I love cookies and you know I love me some cookies. So without further ado, Gnocchi with Herbed Brown Butter.

Now like most quick pasta recipes we start with putting a pot of water on the fire.

Now grab a small frying pan. I like to use stainless here. If you use nonstick it makes it hard to see just how dark the butter is getting. It can go Holy Shit Burned very quickly.

Add a stick of butter to the pan. I know from the recipes so far I’ve been a little heavy handed with the butter but I promise it’s not always this rich in my house. *scouts honor*

Because she’s a little bit-o-beefcake, my kitchen helper Monkey smells butter and wants to help.

She is sorely denied. At this point I grab my pre packaged gnocchi. I’m much too busy to be making gnocchi on a regular basis. At some point I plan to learn how to make them from scratch but today is not that day by a long shot.

Its at this point I realize I’ve got another helper. My friendly neighborhood deer is out having some dinner of her own. Clover flowers, tres’ yum.

Now we need to pop the butter on the heat.

Next we take some garlic and mince it. I’m hella lazy so I use my trusty microplane but you could easily chop.

Add it to the melting butter

It’ll get all frothy and now you need to keep an eye on it. Keep swirling and peeking past the froth to see how brown the butter is getting.

Now use your favorite herbs. I’m using thyme and oregano. I’ve gushed about how much I love my herb garden but you could easily use your favorites. Or you could use dried in a pinch but I prefer fresh for this application. I also add some pepper, a pinch of salt and some red pepper flakes.

It’s probably a good time to take the butter off the heat. It should look muchly like this

Add the herbs off the heat, they’ll sizzle and the butter will refroth but it’s cool, trust me.

At this point add some salt to the water

Once its boiling add the gnocchi to the water

These will cook really quickly, in a matter of minutes. Once they start to float pull them out of the water and add them to a bowl.

Now pour some of the brown butter over the gnocchi and toss.

Add some Parmesan cheese and serve. Absolutely smooth creamy perfection in a bowl. Yum.