Gnocchi with Sage-Butter Sauce

I love fresh herbs, but I hate how expensive they are.  I don't like letting them go to waste when I have some leftover, so I normally search for a recipe in which I can use them up.  It would be nice if I could grow my own herbs, and then I wouldn't have to worry about wasting money.  However, I don't think I've grown anything in my entire life.  Wait...I take that back.  There was that biology class in college where we had to grow a plant.  I cannot, for the life of me, remember why we had to grow a plant...or what happened to the plant at the end of the semester...or how I ended up with an odd-duck of a lab partner.  Seriously, he was peculiar.  

It was while I was searching for a recipe to use up some fresh sage that I stumbled upon this one.  It was perfect except for one thing...gnocchi is so weird.  The word 'gnocchi' is just strange, and the food is pretty odd too.  They're little dumplings made out of potatoes, but the texture is way wrong.  Fortunately, once you can get past knowing that you're eating potatoes, while feeling like you're not eating potatoes, gnocchi is actually pretty delicious.  I truly enjoyed these little dumplings, slathered in a comforting, buttery sauce.

Gnocchi with Sage-Butter Sauce

Ingredients:

2 (12 ounce) packages potato gnocchi (I couldn't find 12 ounce packages, so I just bought one that was around 18 ounces.  I also chose the potato, tomato, and spinach variety...hence the pretty colors.)

1/4 cup butter

2 cloves garlic, minced

12 chopped fresh sage leaves, more or less according to preference

1/4 teaspoon salt

Black pepper

Grated Parmesan cheese

Directions:

1.  In a large pot of boiling, salted water, cook gnocchi for 2 to 3 minutes or until they float.  Drain.

2.  Melt the butter in a skillet over medium heat.  Stir in the garlic.  Cook until garlic has softened and is beginning to turn golden brown, about 4 minutes.

3.  Stir in the sage and salt for a few seconds.  Add the cooked gnocchi to the skillet.  Stir.

4.  Sprinkle with black pepper and Parmesan cheese.

Source: slightly adapted from allrecipes.com