Gnocchi with blue cheese sauce and pancetta
Posted: 04 November '09 by Niall
Gnocchi with blue cheese sauce
After reading Sarah’s recipe for Gnocchi Piedmontaise, I had decided to make our own gnocchi, and was just waiting for the opportunity.
With plenty of left-over mashed potatoes from the previous night the time had come – and I was amazed how easy the process is – and how tasty the results! Seriously, the little gnocchi pillows are wonderfully light and make a delicious meal out of those potatoes which were destined to be thrown out.
Needless to say, Kelly loved this recipe – but I have the feeling that I could cover an old tyre in blue cheese sauce and Kelly would ask for seconds! But give it a go – you definitely won’t be disappointed.
You can see more photos hereImage 1Image 2Image 3Image 4Image 5
Serves 4
Ingredients:
For the Gnocchi:
- 150g warm mashed potato
- 1 egg yolk
- 15g unsalted butter
- 55g plain flour
- Maldon sea salt
- Freshly ground black pepper
- Fresh nutmeg, grated
For the blue cheese sauce:
- 2 tbsp of good quality olive oil
- 200ml of double cream
- 180g blue cheese (preferably gorgonzola)
- 100g fresh grated parmesan
- freshly ground pepper
To serve:
- Grated parmesan
- 2 cloves of garlic, thinly sliced
- Some good quality olive oil to drizzle
- Thinly sliced pancetta (optional)
Method:
- Make your mashed potatoes – I’ll assume you know how to do this
- Warm the mashed potato, which can be prepared in advance, gently in a saucepan adding the butter once warmed enough to melt the butter. Once the butter has fully incorporated add the seasoning, a good couple of pinches of nutmeg and the egg yolk. Mix again well. Finally, fold in the flour using your hands to finish the mixing whilst taking care not to over-mix as this shall toughen the dough.
- Split the mixture into three batches and roll into finger thick long sausage shapes on a lightly floured surface. Cut into one inch long pieces and squeeze the middle to create bow-tie like shapes (this helps the middle of the dough to cook through properly).
- Bring a large pan of salted water to a simmer and poach the gnocchi in batches of 8-10 until each rises to the surface of the water. Remove and drain on a clean tea towel. Allow to cool, preferably in the fridge. The gnocchi can be frozen at this stage and pulled out in batches once required.
- Once required, heat a frying pan and add a dash of clarified butter. Gently fry the gnocchi until they are a pale golden colour, seasoning if required.
- Add the cream to a saucepan and bring to a simmer over a low heat
- Add your chopped blue cheese, a pinch of black pepper, a good glug of olive oil, and the parmesan and turn off the heat, mixing the ingredients
- Put some olive oil into another saucepan along with the chopped pancetta and place over a medium heat. When the pancetta has coloured and started to crisp, lower the heat and add the sliced garlic, sweating gently until the garlic becomes translucent
- Place the gnocchi onto your plate, scatter the pancetta and garlic on top, add the blue cheese sauce, dust with the grated parmesan and drizzle some olive oil on top
Buon appetito!
Other information:
Lots of people have trouble pronouncing “gnocchi” – but it’s not that difficult..
- The “gn” makes a “ny” sound with a silent “g”
- The “occh” is pronounced as a hard “k”, as in “ock”
- The “i” is an “ee” sound, as in “three”
Which gives you “nyockee”.
Gnocchi is the plural form of the word. The singular is “gnocco.” So you might order a plate of gnocchi and devour every gnocco on that plate.
Tags: homemade, homemade pasta, italian food, leftovers, pasta, recipe
Categories: Recipes
