Top Chef Gnocchi

If you're like me, you love watching Top Chef. The past few seasons have featured a Quickfire Challenge where the winner gets their dish featured as a Schwan's frozen meal. I am familiar with Schwan's from a previous job where the office, and a few co-worker friends ordered from them. Everything I've tasted from Schwan's had been really great, so I trusted them enough to try the Top Chef meals.

I ordered two. One was Ed's (from this season) Gnocchi, which featured mushrooms, asparagus, snap peas, edamame, and a chicken broth with Parmesan cheese to sprinkle on top.

The instructions were pretty straight forward and easy, done within 15 minutes and only dirtying one pot. I really liked that the gnocchi were allowed to sear and brown, getting crunch and flavor on them.

It was meant for three 1-cup portions, but we split it into two servings, having a large salad on the side.

Did I like it? Yes and no. I think the sauce might have killed the dish, or the cheese. Some component in there was ridiculously salty. The combination, however, was great and I'd be happy to eat it again with minor adjustments.

If I ordered this in the future I would add water to thin the sauce, not add as much sauce, and definitely not add the cheese. But it was a cool experience to eat something we saw made on TV.

This is not a compensated review. Top Chef and Schwan's have no clue who I am. I bought this meal with my own money and this is my honest opinion of the product.