Gnocchi mimetics

In the begining of this year, I was heavier than I am now. I let myself go during College and for a while I did nothing about it. So, there I was, in the line of a bookstore, waiting to pay for my books (sometimes I go to the bookstore like someone who goes to groceries shopping, just stuffing my basket with things I might use later). There was I, thinking about my life and I saw this book Je ne sais pas maigrir (link pro Amazon). The Dukan Diet Book! Of course, by than, I didn't knew anything about the Dukan Diet. So I bought it and took home. I gave myself two weeks to read the book and prepare to change my way of cooking and eating.

Well, I followed the diet for a few months. It basically consists in reducing you intake of carbohydrates at the minimum and feeding yourself with proteins, oat bran and water.

I lost weight! 16 pounds to be preciselly! Enough to feel better about myself, and get back, bit by bit to eat normally.

When you get in a diet where it's cut basically all carbohydrate. You start to crave even the simplest of breads! The major trick to go trough Dukan Diet is to get creative! I set up a board in pinterest to gather ideas of Dukan recipes.

I've done a lot of them, and got different degrees of sucess. But my favorite of all was the gnocchi. A delicious gnocchi that is not a  gnocchi, get it?

Materials:

• 500g Ricota cheese
• 1 tablespoon low fat cream cheese (I use no fat and works pretty well)
• olive oil
• salt
• garlic powder
• Tomato sauce
• Cheese (in this case was low fat mozzarela)

Methods:

• Crumble the ricota untill very thin. You don't want any big chunks
• mix well with the cream cheese and season to taste with olive oil, salt and garlic powder.
• Roll strings of the dough and cut them in small pieces.
• Place them in a baking pan lined with parchmant paper and bake at 200º untill light brown on top. No need to turn.

• Let it cool for a bit and place them in a baking pan again. Toss the tomato sauce and mix lightly or they can crumble.
• Toss the grated cheese on top and put in the oven to gratin untill cheese is bubbling.

Experimental observations:

You can season the dough in any way you want. You can even add small pieces of cooked bacon (removing the fat) on the dough. Unless your in a diet. But be careful with liquid seasoning (olive oil for example). The dough is very soft, and might not stick together if too much liquid is added.

You can use any sauce you want. But you have to bake the gnocchi first. Don't cook them in the sauce, or else it will become one big dough.

Also, mix gently with the sauce, if you toss it too much you gonna crumble them.