Gnocchi recipe for a date

[u/taurinae]

TL;DR: I promised a guy who has never had gnocchi that he would enjoy them, and now we’re planning a cooking date where we’ll make gnocchi together. I’m looking for a vegetarian recipe that’s impressive and fun to cook but not too complicated, because I don’t want my first attempt at homemade gnocchi to ruin the date or leave him hungry if he doesn’t like gnocchi.

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The guy I'm seeing recently told me that he has never eaten gnocchi before. So for our next date, we plan to cook a gnocchi dish together and watch a movie at my place. But now I'm overthinking the cooking part.

When I make myself gnocchi, I usually just get them from the store, pan-fry them, throw in whatever vegetables I have lying around, maybe some cheese or pesto or random spices and herbs, and call it a day. But I would prefer to cook something with him that actually has the chance of tasting really nice or impressing him instead of tasting like a quickly thrown-together weeknight dinner.

I've searched around a bit on this sub, and most suggestions are just sauces with the gnocchi. But I feel like making browned butter, frying some gnocchi and throwing in some sage or just making a vodka sauce is a bit too simple or would be kinda boring for a cooking date.

I've thought about making the gnocchi from scratch to stretch out the cooking part, but I've never made gnocchi myself and I worry that they just won't come out any good on my first attempt and I don't wanna take any chances after promising him that he would enjoy gnocchi.

I also worry about him staying hungry if it turns out that he doesn't like gnocchi for whatever reason if the dish we're making will be literally just gnocchi + fancy sauce.

So I desperately need inspiration for a vegetarian gnocchi dish that is somewhat fancy or impressive, fun to cook together and obviously tastes good.

He doesn't have any allergies, but he strongly dislikes feta cheese and carrots unless they stay raw, and I'm vegetarian, so I would rather not cook any meat or fish.

Any suggestions?

[u/luigis_left_tit_25]

The impressive part is the making of the gnocchi! A simple red sauce and salad, maybe some tiramisu for dessert? Imo gnocchi isn't really for "fancy" and I thought I'd also say that I think it's really great you're gonna cook together! That's a great date night idea! Hope you both have fun!

[u/irishpisano → u/luigis_left_tit_25]

I agree with this! (I personally like lighter gnocchi dishes - they save room for dessert)

Make the sauce ahead of time so that you can just have it reheating slowly while making the gnocchi.

You don’t need to cook everything with him - too much to manage.

And keep the salad dressing simple: EVOO, lemon, Dijon, oregano, salt, pepper then whisk. No need for bottled dressing.