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.
Categories: Featured Post > Italian Food > Main Course > Pasta > Recipes
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Make Your Own Pasta
Posted: 29 July '09 by Niall
The pasta machine
Making your own pasta – it’s always something that I’ve shied away from. It always looked so difficult! Not even being given a pasta machine last year spurred me into action.
After reading yet another cookbook that explained how simple it was, I decided enough was enough. Here’s how I made our pasta sheets for the nettle and ricotta ravioli..
Ingredients
- 750g ’00′ pasta flour
- A pinch salt
- 3-5 free-range eggs
Additional Items
- A pasta machine or rolling pin
- A damp tea-towel
- Semolina (optional)
Method:
- Place the pasta flour in a large bowl
- Add the eggs gradually, ensuring the dough remains dry – you may not need all of the eggs, depending on how large your eggs are.
- Dust your work surface with flour and knead the dough thoroughly for 10 minutes until the eggs are combined evenly and the dough feels silky. It should not feel at all sticky – if it does, sprinkle a little more flour over the dough and knead again.
- Wrap the dough and let it rest in the fridge for 20-30 minutes before rolling out. If you don’t have a pasta machine, flour the work surface and rolling pin and roll it out until it is very thin
- If you’re using a pasta machine to roll out the dough, assemble the machine and turn the rollers to the widest setting. Break off about a sixth of the dough (keep the rest wrapped in a damp towel so it doesn’t dry out) and feed it through the rollers. Fold in half, turn and repeat. Do this 2 or 3 times until the dough feels very silky and the pasta “pops” as you pass it through the machine
- Turn the machine to the next setting so that the rollers close up a little and pass the unfolded strip of dough through. If the dough starts to stick to the rollers, smooth a little flour over the pasta strip. Keep closing the rollers and passing the dough through until you have a very thin strip – cut in half at any stage if it gets too long to handle. Lay the finished sheets out on a damp tea towel while you roll out the rest of the dough
- A light dusting of semolina will help to keep it dry
A word of warning! Make sure that you have a damp tea-towel for laying out the rolled pasta sheets – the pasta, if left, gets very sticky and will tear.
Categories: Main Course > Pasta > Recipes
