Pumpkin gnocchi with chorizo, mushrooms and walnuts

Winter always seems to come late to my kitchen, it’s now heading into spring and I’ve only just now decided to bring out the big guns of autumnal flavours, deep earthy tones, rich in salt and fat, with a piquancy to warm the cockles.

I’m no expert when it comes to gnocchi, in fact it’s still a challenge I am learning to master, so instead of doling out advice on a subject I’m no authority on I thought I’d send you off to a good resource and a couple of recipes I’ve made in the past. Firstly there is Lucky Peach’s How to make gnocchi, an awesome article well worth the read, then my own small contributions, potato chip gnocchi and potato flake gnocchi. I made, or rather attempted, swore a lot, and cobbled together passable pumpkin gnocchi, but any gnocchi would work well with the sauce.

There’s really actually not much to this. Get a heavy based pan on a high heat, and add in a splash of oil and a knob of butter, when the sizzling subsides add in the cooked gnocchi and generously brown, but quickly you don’t want to develop too thick of a crust. Transfer to a bowl, or other vessel.

Get the pan back on the heat and top up with butter if needed, toss in the chorizo and cook to release the fragrant fat from the sausage, add the diced shallots and cook until translucent. If you’re going to add a little heat with chilli, sprinkle it in now, then add the mushrooms and brown. Just as the mushrooms are getting done, toss in the mint, rosemary and walnuts, cook until fragrant. Toss the cooked gnocchi through and add a splash or two of the cooking liquid to lubricate. Taste and season, then serve.

What you’ll need for the above.
Mushrooms, sliced
Chorizo, dice
Walnuts, roughly chopped
Rosemary, pulled off the stem
Mint, thinly sliced
Cooked gnocchi
Reserved cooking water
Butter
Shallot, diced
Salt
Pepper
Chilli flakes

Sopressa puttanesca

This is one of those get it all into the pot and let it see to itself for a couple of hours, fats and oils mingling together, textures softening, flavours intensifying. When you’ve finally had enough torture and can’t hack the mouth watering aromas filling the house, you just need to give a final adjustment to the seasoning, get it off the heat and devour, spaghetti is fine if you can’t be bothered with the gnocchi, but the fluffy pillows of potato really do lend themselves well to this sauce.

Sopressa puttanesca
Olive oil
Olives, stoned
Chilli flakes, to taste
Garlic, diced
Capers, rinsed
Sopressa, grated!
Capsicum, diced
Red onion, diced
Tomatoes, 1 can
Cider vinegar

• Get a generous glug of olive oil in a heavy pan over a medium heat, add a bit more, put in the grated sopressa and gently let it come up to temperature and release it’s oils.
• When it’s all sizzling away add in the garlic, onion and capsicum, cook until translucent.
• Splash in a little vinegar, and cook out.
• Add the chilli, capers, olives and tomatoes, cover and reduce the heat to low. Cook for a hour or two.
• Adjust the seasoning, salt, chilli, vinegar, and let cook out for a few more minutes before double checking.

Gnocchi
60g potato flakes (1 cup)
300 ml water
1 egg
4 g salt

• Mix well, transfer to ziplock bag and let rest for at least half an hour.
• Get a large pot of salted water on to boil.
• Nip of the corner of the bag and use scissors or a knife to cut of portions as you pipe into the water.
• Cook until floating on the surface and transfer to an ice bath.

Getting it all together

• When ready to serve, get a sauté pan on a medium heat with a glug of olive oil and a knob of butter.
• Sauté the gnocchi until beginning to crisp, ladle in some sauce and toss through, repeat until enough sauce is added.
• Serve in bowls with a generous grating of hard cheese.

Potato Chip Gnocchi

These gnocchi use instant potato flakes in place of a baked potato, which means you can manipulate the flakes and moisture levels quite easily. I toasted the flakes in a hot oven until golden brown and smelling more than a little reminiscent of a bag of potato chips.

The sauce I served was a pretty simple broken sausage, thyme, shallots and some passata, dressed with a little cheese, parsley, sweet corn and radish slices.

60 g potato flakes (1 cup)
250 g boiling water (1 cup)
1 egg
6 g smoked salt
150 g flour (1 cup)

• Spread out the potato flakes on a sheet pan and bake at 180ºC for 5 minutes, they should be golden brown and will burn pretty quickly, so keep an eye on them.
• Transfer the flakes and salt to a bowl and pour on the boiling water, stir through and cover. Let it stand for 5–10 minutes.
• Mix the egg through.
• Add the flour and bring together into a ball of dough, do not overwork the dough.
• Wrap in cling-film and rest in the fridge for half an hour.

• Divide the dough into four, gently roll a portion of the dough into a log about the width of your thumb.
• Use a sharp knife and cut into 1cm slices.

• The dough pretty fragile and easily mashed, use either a fork or gnocchi board and roll it down the ridges. Place on a tray dusted with semolina flour. Repeat with the remaining dough.
• Poach in salted boiling water for a couple of minutes, they should float to the top when cooked. Toss through some sauce and devour.

Brown Butter & Sage Gnocchi

I thought I'd try my hand at making Gnocchi for the first time. A little research and found a simple recipe, and then decided to add to it.

I got a pan on a medium heat and put a decent lump of butter in there and let it sit, spit and bubble until it had turned a deep hazelnut colour (I can not say enough about brown butter, it's delish great with pasta and the aroma is amazing). Then added a handful of sage leaves and 2 eggs and pureed it.I had about 600 grams of (floury) potatoes peeled and cubed and boiling until nice and soft.

Next time I'll have to remember the post from Ideas in Food and what they did to their potato skins, and the byproduct sounds like fun to play with.