pan-fried gnocchi with beet pesto, in an orange butter sauce

i am so happy with how this recipe eventually turned out--because the first attempts did not. the first beet pesto i made was more like a...paste. it may have tasted good, as my kind dinner guests assured me, and one of them made a good point: "this would be a good ravioli filling." true. but not what i was going for. i've learned that pureeing roasted beets with ricotta creates the kind of sponge that no amount of oil or water will loosen up. but enough with the failed attempts--and on to what ended up being a dinner party-worthy dish. i will have to have those guests over again to try this, asap.

raw beets this time, make the base of the pesto. i've been hearing lately that garlic-intolerance is more common and this pesto has no garlic, yet tons of flavour. i used all parts of the beets in this dish, saving the stems and leaves and sauteing them as a bed for the gnocchi.