Leftover Greek Salad as Pasta Sauce

Ah leftovers.  Sometimes love em. Sometimes hate em. Sometimes wonder how in the world there is so much and what you can do with it because by day three...you are tired of looking at it.

This would be one of those too much of a good thing moments! I had this wonderful Greek salad of cucumber, red bell pepper, cherry tomatoes, kalamata olives, onion, and feta.  All in this really good vinaigrette. But, I was getting tired of eating it. I was tired of looking at it! But I really hate throwing away good food so I decided to do something with it. First thing that came to mind was pasta!

First I fished out the tomatoes, onions, and peppers

I then sauteed them in a pan.  I didn't need to add any oil since they had oil from the vinaigrette.

I cooked them until they softened

I then added some leftover chicken (it is pesto chicken, please do not be alarmed by the green chicken!) After the chicken heated up a bit I added in the diced olives.

Once everything was nice and hot I tossed in some pasta.

Gave everything a stir..

Topped it with some feta

And tada!

Ok, so I didn't use the cucumbers, but since I am not a huge fan of cucumbers, I didn't feel too sad about that...oops? But at least it was tasty! 

Gnocchi from leftovers!

I love the fact I am dating a chef, that means I get to eat lots of nummy food.  One downside is when he brings home the same thing over and over.  The most common item is garlic mashed potatoes.  I mean they are really good, but every week...for months..gets to be a bit much! So I had a aha moment about a month ago.  I LOVE gnocchi and have even made them before.  It occurred to me that gnocchi are mashed potato, flour, egg, and cheese.  Looked at the box o mashed and thought hmmmmm I wonder! I googled my idea and found this recipe. I decided to cut it in half for me since that would mean less I would be tempted to eat! 

1 egg

1 cup leftover mashed potato

pinch of salt

That's it! I didn't add any seasoning as the mash was already cheessy and garlicy. 

The lineup (the black box is the box o mashed potato) 

Mix everything together, I find using a fork is the easiest.  If the mash has been in the fridge, pop it in the microwave for a minute to warm it up so it is less brick like.  Take a bit at a time and roll it out into a log on a floured board. Then cut into pieces.  You can roll the pieces on a fork or a gnocchi board if you like.  I used to do this so I could be authentic, but when I saw gnocchi on Iron Chef and they were not rolled I felt justified being lazy and leaving them as is =P The pop them into boiling water until they float.  Don't leave in too long or they will absorb water and turn into something akin to paste. 

For my sauce, I decided to doctor up a jar of pasta sauce.  To start out I took some olive oil, minced garlic, and pepper flake.  I heated on low for about 20 minutes to let the oils from the flakes come out and for the garlic to soften.  I then added in my tomato sauce.  

Add to gnocchi and tada! Dinner!