Gnocchi with Sausage and Peas

In honor of Tina Turner, who sadly just died, let us consider the dystopian world of Mad Max for a moment. The plot of the films is fiction, obviously, but grim things can and do happen in real life when there are shortages of resources. 

The American West is having a scary, long-term water crisis that could be apocalyptic down the line. As the New York Times noted in a terrific infographic, a huge portion of the dwindling available water from the Colorado River is used to grow feed for the livestock that give us meat and dairy. If people stopped farming animals--even if they used the same land to grow plants to feed humans--the need for water would be far less.

Somehow the Times can do great reporting on things like the West's water shortage and yet still promote a ton of recipes with meat, an issue that I have raised with the food editor in the past. So I vegetarianize bussin recipes like "Crisp Gnocchi With Sausage and Peas" (NYT Cooking; you should be able to access this link for free).

I substituted Impossible "sausage" for the real thing, and I would defy anyone who claims it would be better with real meat. Note that you don't need the extra oil before the "sausage" if you are not using real sausage; the Impossible stuff is plenty oily. I used gluten-free gnocchi, and rather than parmesan, a mix of grana padana and pecorino Romano left over from previously executed recipes. If you really wanted to do the Earth a favor, you could substitute fake, plant-based cheese.

Cheese always gets a big reaction at my house

I actually neglected to get a photo of the finished dish, but it was delightful and a big hit with the backup dancers, one of whom is a serious gnocchiphile. Said backup dancer made the case that there should be more gnocchi relative to the "sausage," which is reasonable, so I'll increase the gnocchi next time and leave all else the same.

I used basil and mint from my own garden for this dish, which is important only insofar as it gives me a segue to gush about my garden, which is currently looking glorious. 

Foxglove

The puffy purple ones are allium

Poppies

This is the time of year when many gardens are at their peak and I wander around exclaiming about peonies and poppies and the like. Yesterday I visited an iris garden in a nearby town and it was dreamy.

Presby Memorial Iris Gardens

Just as I believe we can all make a difference against global warming without entirely eliminating animal products from our diet, I have started to prioritize native plants in my garden while still appreciating my non-native beauties. Native plants support local ecosystems and they often require less water than non-natives. The West isn't the only place where water is an issue: Until we got heavy rain a few weeks ago, drought conditions were present in at least some parts of my state of New Jersey since December 2021.

Here are a few of the native plants in my garden:

This little Christmas fern, an NJ native, will grow to fill out this space unless some vile animal chomps on it

Front left is dense blazing star, and center is white snakeroot - both NJ natives that will bloom later this summer. In back is a non-native but gorgeous peony, three years old, that is blooming for the first time!