Saturday, 4 June 2022

I'M GNOCCHI-DING - THIS IS GOOD

 I like gnocchi and often order it in restaurants. The restaurant in the new Hundertwasser Art Centre  does a particularly nice spinach and ricotta one with a mushroom, pinenuts and roasted artichoke cream sauce. Yummy.

Whenever I've bought pre-made gnocchi from the supermarket I've been disappointed. I've done this because I thought that making gnocchi from scratch was complicated. I was wrong.

I found this recipe on-line and gave it a go last night.


INGREDIENTS

500 g cottage or ricotta cheese ( I used ricotta)

2 cups plain flour + extra as needed

100 g parmesan, grated

6 eggs

Small handful each parsley and basil, chopped

2 tsp sea salt

Tomatoes for topping (optional)

DIRECTIONS
Mix the gnocchi ingredients together in a big bowl to form a soft, just-sticky dough. Don’t over mix. Turn out onto a well-floured surface.
Divide dough into six portions, then roll each into a 3cm-thick log. Cut into 2cm lengths, dusting the little pillows with flour as you go.
Bring a large pot of salted water to a rolling boil. Cook gnocchi in batches, dropping handfuls of the little dumplings into the water and cooking for 4-5 minutes only (they will sink then rise to the surface), removing with a slotted spoon and transferring them directly to serving plates.
To serve, add a splash or olive oil and some chopped basil or parsley or tomatoes to the dumplings.
Serve with grated parmesan and a squeeze of lemon juice.

I cut the recipe in half using 250 gms of ricotta and only 3 eggs and this was still enough for dinner and lunch today for the two of us.

I made a sauce of lemon and fennel infused olive oil, pesto and lemon juice, mixed this through the cooked gnocchi and topped with some good Parmesan cheese. 

The result was excellent and delicious and will now become a staple dish. Once I've 'mastered' the basics of a dish I then experiment with different ingredients. I'll try using combinations of pumpkin, potato, spinach, smoked salmon,  with different herbs and sauces in future.



1 comment:

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