Cheesy Gnocchi & Tomato Bake

Imagine comfort food… without the carbs! Yeah, you’re gonna love it.

Let’s go back to winter days filled with sledding, snowball fights, snowmen, warm knitted hats and cold noses. The only thing better than playing outside was the melty grilled cheese and piping hot tomato soup waiting for you inside. When we were kids filled with boundless energy, we didn’t spend too much time thinking about all the carbs from that bread and all the salt loaded into that bisque. While we want to return to that nostalgic feeling of the family kitchen, sometimes the carbs don’t fit in with our current meal plan. That’s where Dare to Be Different comes in. Today, we’ve got the solution for the practical adult that still wants to live their childhood dreams.

An Unassuming Combination

Peanut Butter & Jelly. Chocolate & Peppermint. Tomato & Cheese. Some opposites just go together! It’s common sense that similar flavors can go together (a variety of melons in a fruit salad, or sugary syrups on top of ice cream), but food science can be a pretty wacky world where opposites make even stronger flavor combinations. So, how do tomatoes (sweet, sour) work so well with cheese (fatty, salty)? The answer for the success of this classic combination is explained by Peter Kim, Executive Director of the Museum of Food and Drink: the “tomato-milk combo hits on umami, sweetness, and sourness from the tomato, and fattiness and saltiness from the cheese—ticking off all the taste, texture, and mouthfeel sensations that make a food delicious to us.” Truly a whole being bigger than the sum of its parts.

Measuring With Your Heart

A quick word on measuring before you start baking and the wonderful aroma of cheesy gnocchi and tomatoes start flooding your kitchen. While our recipe includes portion sizes for garlic and cheese that maximize flavor without overloading on calories, we recommend you measure with your heart. “What is measuring with your heart,” you ask? It’s nothing short of a lifestyle. See, we all want to be the healthiest version of ourselves, but we also all have different bodies with different metabolisms and different flavor profiles. For some people, 4 cloves of garlic can be overpowering, for others it’s not nearly enough flavor! We all love cheese, but sometimes we’re trying to make a dish just a little bit healthier and want to go a bit on the lighter side—other times we ran six miles that morning and we deserve the cheesiest, gooiest bake possible. The only wrong way to prepare a recipe is to be untrue to yourself.

Makes 2-3 servings

Ingredients:

• 1 package Dare To Be Different Cauliflower Gnocchi
• 12 ounces colorful cherry tomatoes
• 1 cup shredded mozzarella or cheddar cheese
• 4 garlic cloves, peeled and sliced
• 1 1⁄2 teaspoon salt
• 1⁄2 teaspoon pepper
• 1 teaspoon oregano
• 2 tablespoons olive oil

1. Cook Dare To Be Different Cauliflower Gnocchi according to package directions.

2. Preheat the oven to 350°F and grease a 9x13 baking dish with cooking spray.

3. Add cooked cauliflower gnocchi, cherry tomatoes, sliced garlic, salt, pepper, oregano, oil, and cheese into the prepared baking dish.

4. Mix everything together and bake for 15-20 minutes until cheese is bubbly and tomatoes

   have burst.

5. Allow to cool a couple minutes before serving.