Monday, August 19, 2013

Gnocchi with creamy pesto

We've had a busy weekend. Bryce spent it servicing the jib furler and I spent the weekend sanding and scrubbing rust off of the engine mounts in preparation for today's job. Bryce is currently sitting crouched in the engine bay with the mechanic learning how to realigned the engine and drive train. The words I just heard from the mechanic, “Here comes the water, you’re starting to sink!” And I can slowly hear water trickling in the boat… Awesome! Never fear, we aren't really sinking but this is exactly why Bryce wanted someone else to do it and to teach him how to do this job! From what I understand in order to properly align everything the propeller shaft needs to be moved around a bit, this moves the seal on the shaft that keeps water out and is how the water gets in. Bryce will surely have a much better, more technical explanation once they are finished. 

We had Bryce’s parents up on Tuesday and took them for a last minute sail. We learned a valuable lesson that spur of the moment sails aren’t really the best thing when you have been living at anchor and absolutely nothing is stowed or secured. The following day, Bryce’s brother and his family came up and we went again for another sail. The kids seemed to have a great time. I handed Jack a book on Marine mammals and he went through it and selected the animals that we were going to look for when we were out in the ocean. Sadly, we did not see any Dugong or Blainville’s Beaked Whales but we may have a future marine biologist on our hands! 

With this recipe we have thankfully reached the end of the overripe avocados! I really didn’t want to waste them so very easily turned them into the base of a creamy pesto sauce. We love gnocchi. It’s great on cold nights and is really easy and quick to prepare.

 
Gnocchi with Pesto Cream Sauce

2 small way overripe avocados, mashed
2 tbsp pesto (homemade or store bought)
1 tsp garlic salt
1 tsp chili oil (can be substituted with olive oil and crushed red chili)
Gnocchi, prepared as per package instructions
  1. Combine the first 4 ingredients.
  2. Toss with cooked gnocchi.
  3. Serve on a bed of spinach or rocket and enjoy!

6 comments:

  1. What a sensation to know water is coming in.....Oh what a feeling? Sorry about the stuff going everywhere when we hit the swell last week though.

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    1. No worries! It wasn't that bad. Just a good reminder.

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  2. That was a valuable lesson from the mechanic. No one on a boat will ever forget those words when fiddling with a specific part of the propellor shaft “Here comes the water, you’re starting to sink!”

    What a way to indelibly mark that on a boaties mind! The gnocci looks great - I can almost taste it - mmmm!

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    1. Definitely! The water is still coming in on and off but the bilge pump has yet to go off so it's not really that much water.

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  3. Wow, sounds like the adventure is happening. Like the gnocchi recipe also.

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