Libby Klein There is no recipe today. The recipe exploded.
I was trying to make ricotta gnocchi. I followed the directions exactly. I made a lovely pan sauce of fried pancetta and sage in butter and olive oil. I still have the grated lemon waiting to go overtop the finished dish. When I put the gnocchi in water they exploded like Mentos in Mountain Dew. I had one giant gnocchi that looked like a life raft.
Totally disgusted, I let it cook the requisite three minutes, then scooped it out of the water with my spider, and dumped the whole concoction into the butter and oil. It looked like it was breathing it was as mad as I was. Then I got the idea to bake it as if it were cheese puffs. So I scooped little meatball sized dumplings onto a parchment lined sheet pan and stuck them in a 350 degree oven for 10 minutes.
They taste right. They kind of resemble little potato pancakes (even though there is no potato since I'm allergic.) For a side dish to meatloaf these would be pretty good. All they are is cheese, flour, and egg with the butter, sage and prosciutto baked in. I don't recommend trying to make exploding gnocchi. Try Vicki Delaney's recipe for Ricotta Gnocchi instead. But if you ever make it by accident, just know you can recover by baking them in the oven and serving them anyway.
Have you ever had a recipe fail so badly you could only pivot or throw it out? Let me know in the comments.
Layla Virtue, a blue-haired, 30-something recovering alcoholic and former cop is trying to reinvent herself as a musician—between AA meetings, dodging eccentric neighbors at her trailer park, and reconnecting with her mysterious dad—in this unforgettable new mystery brimming with hilarity and heart.
Layla is taking her new life one day at a time from the Lake Pinecrest Trailer Park she now calls home. Being alone is how she likes it. Simple. Uncomplicated. Though try telling that to the group of local ladies who are in relentless pursuit of Layla as their new BFF, determined to make her join them for coffee and donuts.
After her first career ended in a literal explosion, Layla’s trying to eke out a living as a rock musician. It’s not easy competing against garage bands who work for tacos and create their music on a computer, while all she has is an electric guitar and leather-ish pants. But Layla isn’t in a position to turn down any gig. Which is why she’s at an 8-year-old’s birthday party, watching as Chuckles the Clown takes a bow under the balloon animals. No one expects it will be his last . . .
Who would want to kill a clown—and why? Layla and her unshakable posse are suddenly embroiled in the seedy underbelly of the upper-class world of second wives and trust fund kids, determined to uncover what magnetic hold a pudgy, balding clown had over women who seem to have everything they could ever want. Then again, Layla knows full well that people are rarely quite what they seem—herself included . . .

