Gnocchi Pomodoro Panna Pesto

This is a copycat recipe of a fabulous gnocchi dish I got in a restaurant.

As I tasted this delish, I knew that in some way I would bring this to my family. Yes, the decision was right and it was a pleasure to see how much these gnocchi were appreciated.

• Servings: 4
• Time: 30mins if with ready made ingredients
• Difficulty: easy
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Ingredients

Gnocchi

• Gnocchi according to my recipe (https://artandkitchen.wordpress.com/2015/02/02/gnocchi-di-patate-italian-potatoes-dumplings/) or store bough. About 125-150 g per person.

Tomato and Cream Sauce

• 2 tablespoon olive oil
• 1 small onion
• 1 1/2 cups chopped tomatoes (pelati are great as well) or passata)
• 1/2 cup heavy cream
• Salt and pepper to taste

Pesto (alternative store bough), you will need only a few teaspoons of pesto

• 1 cup basil leaves
• 1/2 cup heavy cream
• 1 garlic clove chopped
• 1 teaspoon salt

Additional

• Grilled vegetables, I used zucchini (optional)
• Cream of balsamic vinegar
• Parmesan cheese, thinly sliced, quantity to taste
• Herbs for decoration (optional)

Procedure

1. Prepare the gnocchi according to the recipe, but wail for cooking them
2. For the sauce: fry onions in olive oil until tender, add tomatoes, cream and blend shortly. Adjust to taste with salt and pepper. Keep warm.
3. For the pesto: blend together the ingredients.
4. Check you have the additional ingredients ready. I grilled the zucchini and arranged them on dishes and kept warm in the oven (80°C) until the gnocchi were done.
5. Boil the gnocchi, when they come to the surface they are ready.
6. Drain gnocchi and place them in a bowl. Add as mucho tomatoes sauce as you like and toss well.  You do not need to use all the quantity of tomatoes sauce, only to your taste.
7. Arrange the gnocchi on the plates drop 2-4 teaspoon of pesto around, drizzle some cream of balsamic vinegar, add some slices of parmesan cheese and decorate with herbs
8. Serve immediately still hot.

Author: https://artandkitchen.wordpress.com/

Gnocchi di Zucca con Salsa ai Porcini

Today’s inspiration was a small pumpkin from the garden but at the beginning I planned to prepare simply some spätzle as they are quick to be prepared.

To go with this I was not sure if I wanted to prepare my walnut sauce or a mushrooms sauce. At once I remembered I had some porcini mushrooms in the freezer and with an Italian sauce I found that Italian gnocchi would be better. Perhaps too much work for a weekday dinner, but I could already imagine how good it would be and went in the kitchen.

All together I had about 2 hours, as the boiling/baking time for the potatoes/pumpkin and then the cooling time took a lot of time. The final cooking for the gnocchi and the sauce was quick and the smell coming out of the oven was divine.

Some people may like little cheese as topping; in our case the sauce was so tasty that we really did not need this.

Note: for the sauce I opted for the baking method as frozen mushrooms could turn mush, which is not really attractive. If you have fresh ones (any kind!) you may prepare the sauce in the skillet.

For the best results I really suggest to use porcini mushrooms; I can remember that my grandmother fried dried porcini after soaking them in water, this is another option.

I friend of mine said that eggplants are similar to mushrooms, this would be a method to stretch porcini if you don’t have a lot of them (if you try this, please let me know!).

Gnocchi di Zucca

• Servings: 4
• Time: 1 hrs 30 min
• Difficulty: medium
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Autor: https://artandkitchen.wordpress.com

For the pumpkin gnocchi you need:

• 400 g pumpkin pulp, peeled, seed removed and sliced
• 400 g potatoes, washed
• 150 g flour, more if necessary
• 2 teaspoons salt
• 1 dash nutmeg
• Four to dust
• Salt for boiling water
• 2-4 tablespoons vegetal oil for boiling water

Procedure:

1. Place pumpkin on a baking tray. Bake at 200°C/400°F for about 30 minutes until soft and lightly roasted
2. In the meantime boil the potatoes until soft. Time depends form the size
3. When pumpkin is ready remove from the oven, place in a bowl and mush with the form, do the same with potatoes after peeling them.
4. Flatten potatoes and pumpkin and let cool down until lukewarm.
5. Add flour, salt and nutmeg, work with the fork in a big bowl until combined, if it is too wet add some more flour, the should be not to sticky and but still soft!
6. Slice some of the dough, dust with flour (abundant) and roll it out, cut into 1.5 cm (1/2”) pieces and place on a floured baking tray with parchment paper.
7. Bing a big pot with water to boil (about 3-4 liters), add salt and water.
8. Transfer the gnocchi using the parchment paper to the boiling water.
9. After about 5 minutes the gnocchi should rise, they are now ready.
10. Use a colander and transfer them into a greased baking mold. Place into warm oven (about 150-180°C) until serving or keep warm if the sauce is not ready

Salsa ai Porcini

• Servings: 4
• Time: 30 min
• Difficulty: easy
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Autor: https://artandkitchen.wordpress.com

For the porcini sauce you need:

• 300 g porcini mushrooms, frozen and diced
• 1 tablespoons butter
• 1 small onion, finely diced (or one shallot)
• 2/3 cup white wine
• 1 teaspoon flour
• 1/3 cup water
• 1 teaspoon broth granulate (beef, chicken or vegetables broth granulate)
• 1/3 cup heavy cream
• Pepper to taste
• Salt or broth granulate to adjust
• Parsley to sprinkle

Procedure:

1. Preheat the oven to 220°C /450°F.
2. Pour frozen mushrooms on a greased baking mold (mine was about 25 cm / 10 inch wide) and bake for about 5 minutes.
3. Add onion and bake until the borders of the mushrooms begins to brown.
4. Dissolve four in wine and water and add granulate.
5. Pour this mixture over the mushrooms. Stir only once, gently.
6. When sauce begins to thicken (after about 5 minutes) add heavy cream and pepper. Stir once gently.
7. Adjust salt if necessary and bake for other 3 minutes.
8. Remove from the oven, sprinkle with parsley and serve with the gnocchi or pasta.

Gnocchi di Patate – Italian Potatoes Dumplings

 

Quanto sono buoni i gnocchi! Do you know gnocchi, the Italian potatoes dumplings?

They are served as pasta, with tomatoes sauce, with Parmesan cheese, with heated butter with sage.

In the shops most gnocchi are made mostly with semolina, but the Italian housewives are used to prepare this with potatoes because they are more tasty and I imagine that potatoes were available from the own vegetable garden (people had to buy flour). Another great variation is with the addition of pumpkin which was previous cooked in the oven in order to get a better taste and to reduce water content.

I don’t know why I forget to prepare gnocchi more often as they are light delicious and easy to prepare. We were used to prepare lot of them, this saves the time for the 2, 3… meal but it was too much time consuming for the first meal. If you have more time, you can make plenty boil them and freeze them for the next meal; you will have to place them (still frozen) in hot salted water and boil them for about 5-6 minutes until hot.

For this reason today I will prepare only what we need for 4 persons and I will have fun. I’m ready to start. Enjoy.

Ingredients:

• 500 g potatoes, starchy ones
• 1 medium egg
• 200 g flour, adjust to the need, depends on he humidity of the potatoes
• 1/2 teaspoon salt

Procedure:

1. Boil the unpeeled potatoes in enough salted water until tender (time depends on the size).
2. Drain and peel the potatoes until still with a knife. You can use a towel to protect the hand holding the potatoes.
3. Mash the potatoes into a bowl using a potato ricer or with a “passe vite”.
4. Add egg, flour and salt.
5. Work with your hand until the dough comes together and you get a smooth dough, if necessary add more flour.
6. Now put the dough onto the floured working surface and work little bit more until elastic enough to be shaped.
7. Roll a portion of the dough onto the well-floured surface into a snake (or sausage) about 1 ½ cm think.
8. With a knife cut into 2 cm pieced.
9. Using a fork take a single gnocchi and press, roll it for form the typical pattern. Proceed piece by piece in the same way placing each gnocchi on a floured tea towel on a baking tray, spaced apart. This will prevent sticking and helps when it’s time to add them to the hot salted water.
10. Bring at least 3 liters of hot water to boil. Add salt as need and 3 tablespoon of a neutral vegetal oil.
11. Add the gnocchi carefully to the salted water. Stir once and wait for 1-2 minutes until they rise to the surface.
12. Drain and serve immediately. If you have to store them in a bowl add little butter, and toss gently; this will prevent sticking.