Dear Giada,

Stop making everything look so easy! Please keep in mind those in your audience that are trying things for the first time. When you say on Food Network online that a gnocchi recipe is intermediate, that doesn’t deter me enough. You need to label it as “expert” for me to think it is beyond the scope of my talents.

Your recipe didn’t stop me from buying three potatoes, piercing the potatoes all over with a fork, microwaving them for 12 minutes (turning halfway through,) removing the skin (and almost burning my hands in the process), mashing the potatoes with salt and pepper, throwing three tablespoons of egg in along with ¼ cup of flour and sifting the flour over the potato (through a colander since I do not have a sifter) and then kneading the potato. It also didn’t stop me from dividing the dough into four equal pieces, rolling each piece between my palms and then rolling it on a plastic mat until it is one long 20-inch “rope.” It really didn’t discourage me from cutting the dough into one-inch pieces, rolling each over a fork to form grooves and then cooking it in a large pot of boiling water until it rises to the surface (about one minute) and cooking another four minutes. At this point, I am discouraged from trying again because it feels and looks like I just made mush.

I thought if I let the gnocchi sit for a while it would harden. So I proceeded to make a Knorr four-cheese sauce mix (just 180 calories and 7.5 grams of fat for the whole package) which you needed to stir with 1.5 cups of milk (I use skim of course) constantly until boiling, and then occasionally stir as I let it simmer for five minutes. You, Giada, suggested that I make the gnocchi with a Butter Thyme Sauce, but that didn’t sound appetizing to me so I improvised. The sauce, thank god, saved this dish, which tasted a bit like what I imagine potatoes au gratin should taste like.

And Giada, since I was frustrated that my almost two-hour effort did not come out perfectly, I googled gnocchi recipes to find out what I may do the next time to make my gnocchi more like yours. One suggestion that I will take is using a mashed potato mix instead of using potatoes from scratch. Of course, that’s if I ever feel up to the task of trying to be like you again (without the great cleavage!)

Your friend,

Allison