Gnocchi

Gnocchi, lightly pan fried with pepper.

I’ve just been making gnocchi — you know, those tasty little Italian dumplings. In my student days, I often used to order gnocchi from Italian restaurants — the area I lived in was famous for Italian food — and I loved them so much, I tried the pre-made ones in packets from the supermarket. Thumbs down on them — quite rubbery! So of course, I decided to try making them myself.

The most common kind of gnocchi is made with potatoes, and when I first tried making them myself, many years ago, they always turned out a bit rubbery.

Enter my friend, fabulous Harlequin Mills and Book writer and excellent cook, Helen Bianchin, who told me, “Treat the mix like scones, Anne. Don’t knead them too much, just enough to bring the mix together.” So I followed her advice, and my potato gnocchi turned out soft and delicious. Thank you Helen. (I’ve actually thanked her several times, but you can’t thank someone enough for giving you the Secret of Gnocchi.)

My next venture into gnocchi-making was when I tried out a recipe for spinach gnocchi from the Women’s Weekly Italian cookbook. It was made with spinach and ricotta, and I have to say, for a long time this was my favorite recipe for home-made gnocchi. It was so easy. And delicious. (The recipe is below — scroll down.)

I’ve also made pumpkin gnocchi. I roast the pumpkin and use ricotta from the deli section of the supermarket, which is well drained and a bit firmer than ricotta in tubs. With just an egg and some of flour, plus grated parmesan and salt and pepper, it’s delicious. I made some today, in fact, as I had some pumpkin I wanted to use up. I tend to make it “by eye” as some call it — I know roughly what proportions to use, and add more flour if it’s needed etc. That’s it on the right in the process, and the final result is above (actually by the time you read this it will be in my tummy.) But if you want a recipe, this is a good one, and it has a video as well as detailed instructions.

My batch made quite a lot, so I plan to freeze some. Apparently they cook well from frozen — no thawing out needed. Next time I’m going to try making them with gluten-free flour, as I have a few friends with that difficulty.

I’ve also made semolina gnocchi (aka Gnocchi alla Romana) but that’s a little bit more fiddly, so I only make it when I’m having friends over for dinner. It’s delicious though and whenever I’ve served it, it all disappears fast.  That’s it on the left.

That recipe was also from the Women’s Weekly Italian cookbook, which I’ve had for years and is still one of my all-time favorites. Here’s the spinach gnocchi recipe.

It’s a little hard to read, but the ingredients are:  I bunch of spinach (around 8 leaves), 250 grams (8 ozs) ricotta cheese, 90 gms (3 ozs) Parmesan cheese, 1 egg, salt, pepper, 1/4 teasp nutmeg, flour, 45 gm (1.5 oz) butter.