Yesterday I made a hearty vegetable marinara sauce, my first, to help prepare a friend who’ll soon travel to India where he’ll eat a complete vegetarian diet for nearly two weeks. He’s been warned to “prepare” his non-vegetarian body for the “shock.”
Coincidentally, someone from India recently asked, on a Goodreads discussion, how to make vegetarian Bolognese (meat sauce). Well, you can’t, because then it’s not a Bolognese. But last night’s chunky vegetable sauce came out so good that I didn’t miss the meat. I used it on gnocchi. Here’s an excerpt from Half Italian (and then some): 

“Gnocchi are thick ropes of pasta, cut into bite-size pieces. My family has always made the kind that’s potato-based. Gnocchi are well known in Italy, perhaps not as typical as the hot dog in America, but I haven’t met anyone who doesn’t like them.”
Here’s the gnocchi, being made:


Here they are, boiling:
 


Adding boiled gnocchi to the pan with the chunky marinara...

 
…and ready to eat (with some chopped avocado, a California touch that my immigrant relatives made to nearly every salad, many sandwiches, even avocado pie -- but never to gnocchi!).
  
But now that the book is out, what’ll I do with this great sauce idea!?
 - JoeHalf Italian (and then some)  on Kindle,  on Nook,  on Kobo.  For iBook and others, click here.