Todd, who is The Daring Kitchen’s AWESOME webmaster and an amazing cook, is our September Daring Cooks’ host! Todd challenged us to make light and fluffy potato Gnocchi and encouraged us to flavor the lil pillows of goodness and go wild with a sauce to top them with!
I’m prone to blond moments. I mean seriously epic ones at times. Being a blond, I can call them blond moments without offending countless blonds around the Nation.
When I messaged Ms Lily about my gnocchi blond moment, venting my anger, sharing my idiocy and hoping for some sympathy. The sympathetic reply was “I snorted out loud when I read that”. Hmm, yah, gee, thanks GF (said with duck face pout and diva style finger waggle).
So what had I done? More like what hadn’t I done.
I had received a lovely delivery of fresh seasonal asparagus from the Australian Asparagus Growers, and I wanted to make a dish to do those lovely spears justice. Instantly I thought what a great idea to combine the asparagus with my Daring Cooks’ September challenge. Gnocchi was the challenge, so why not add asparagus? Plus, honestly, if you can kill two birds………
A brilliant recipe came together in my mind. Potato gnocchi with asparagus, pine nuts, prosciutto, sage, browned butter and lemon. I had a plan, and a tasty one at that.
The dish was a hit, absolutely delicious. The flavours worked well together as imagined.
I cooked. I photographed. We ate.
Then I swore so loudly that Mac said I probably scared the neighbourhood children. After scoffing down the gnocchi, I returned to the kitchen, opened the fridge and realised I had left out the key ingredient, the damn asparagus! (insert said swear words) There was the asparagus, in the fridge, waving back at me. Yes a complete and utter blond moment.
I humbly ask dear reader that you use your imagination and visualise plump green spears of asparagus mingled with the gnocchi in my photos. You can see how visually stunning it would of been, I know I can.
You may wonder about the grappa in the recipe. It just adds another dimension to the gnocchi. I have never used it before in gnocchi, it just happened to be in an old recipe I found. I would of asked my personal authority on all things Italian, but she is AWOL at the moment in Italy. If you don’t have grappa in your cupboard, and I would imagine that most would not, then just leave it out. I wouldn’t purposely search for grappa just for this recipe. Trust me, grappa is pretty nasty stuff and I am trying to work out what to do with the two bottles I have had in my cupboard for the past 20 years. Limoncello maybe? Stay tuned.
- 600g potatoes
- 1tsp salt
- 1T grappa (optional)
- 1 egg
- 120g plain flour
- 1T butter
- ½T olive oil
- 60g butter
- ⅓c pine nuts
- 6 thin slices of prosciutto
- sage leaves, a handful
- ½ lemon juiced
- 1 bunch of asparagus (when in season & if you remember!)
- Peel potatoes and cut into large even pieces (halves or quarters depending on the size of your potatoes). Boil them in a pot of salted water over a medium heat. Once tender, strain.
- While potatoes are still hot place through a ricer or press through a wire sieve.
- In a large bowl mix mashed potato, salt, grappa (if using) and egg. Then mix through flour. Turn out onto a floured surface and knead until combined. Either roll in to a sausage and cut off pieces and shape. Or pull off dough from the mother dough and shape into a square.
- In a large pot of boiling water carefully drop in gnocchi. Once they have risen to the surface of the water, cook for a further minute. Remove, drain and place on baking paper. Be careful not to over crowd your pot with gnocchi, you may want to cook in a couple of batches.
- Place a large non stick pan over medium heat and add 1T of butter and oil. When the butter has melted add gnocchi and cook until brown. Once brown remove from pan and place on a plate. Wipe down your pan with paper towel and place back on the stove top.
- Add remaining butter to your pan. Once melted and starting to bubble add pine nuts. When nuts are starting to brown add torn pieces of prosciutto and sage.
- Then add lemon juice, stir well. Add your gnocchi back to the pan to warm through and coat with the sauce. Remove from pan onto a serving plate and serve.
Do tell dear Belly Rumbles’ reader, have you ever left the key ingredient out of your recipe?
Interesting! I’ve never had gnocchi pan fried. Brown butter & sage is such a good combo.
You will have to give it a go next time you see it on a menu, very comforting.
Oh I have to confess I have done that too many times! Or gone to the trouble of making a side dish or salad and forgetting it in the fridge. I can certainly visualise this gorgeous recipe with the addition of asparagus 🙂
Lisa the Gourmet Wog recently posted..Kale Tabouli
LOL Lisa I am glad I’m not the only one.
gnocchi and scallops are my 2 fav things on this earth! i must try this dish out!
milkteaxx recently posted..My second dining room: Albee’s Kitchen, Campsie
Ooooo I love scallops too.
Hi Sara,
It’s indeed odd that things like that happen to all blonds and non-blonds alike =D
I wonder how incredibly delicious the combination gnocchi-asparagus would’ve been. Your golden brown gnocchi looks fantastic though, even without the asparagus!
Renata recently posted..GNOCCHI TRADICIONAL – Desafio Daring Cooks – Setembro / 2013
Thank you Renata, your gnocchi are gorgeous for the challenge!
I was looking at your photos trying to work out where the asparagus was 🙂 Very funny story, Sara. Your gnocchi looks fabulous even without the asparagus.
Christina @ The Hungry Australian recently posted..My Mother’s Chicken Liver Pâté
Thanks Christina, sorry I had you looking for the asparagus 🙂
I love the idea of pan fried gnocchi – the crust on the outside would work well with the soft pillowy insides!! Delicious
Tina @ bitemeshowme recently posted..Just Cakes Part 2
I love gnocchi any which way, but having it pan fried was a fun change.
Ha Ha I love how you said you have blonde moments. I always tell people that for an Indian girl I have a lot of blonde moments myself. Yesterday I kept a batter to rise overnight in the oven, completely forgot it was there and turned the oven on to bake some cookies. By the time I realized the batter was cooking in the oven it was too late to salvage it and I had to throw it all away 🙂
Love the Gnocchi btw, it looks really hearty.
Oh no about your batter. Definitely sounds like something I would do!
Ahhh. Story of my life. I cannot tell you how often I do this 🙂 Pan fried gnocchi is the best though, even if the asparagus stayed forgotten in the fridge 😉
Jas@AbsolutelyJas recently posted..Gnocchi for Daring Cooks
Thanks so much Jas, so glad I am not the only one.
Haha….I do things like that all the time! Sometimes I even chop up the vegetable and then forget to put it in!
Well done you with your gnocchi…..I have had 2 failed attempts so far!
Deepa@onesmallpot recently posted..Is it just me or……..
Hehe Deepa, yup, I have done that before too. Thanks so much for the nice words on the gnocchi.
Pan-fried gnocchi has to be one of my faves. I adore the burnished crust they get, retaining that beautiful fluffiness within.
I left out eggs from a recipe once, wondering why the cake didn’t turn out as expected. Then I found two eggs sitting on the kitchen counter!
john | heneedsfood recently posted..Bondi Farmers Market
Oh that’s so funny about the eggs, probably not so funny at the time :p
I never read recipes properly so I’m always leaving ingredients out lol!
Iron Chef Shellie recently posted..Coco-Nutty Granola
I’m up the other end of the hair colour spectrum as you know, but my blonde moments always revolve around baking. I’ve left egg out of a mudcake recipe… could you imagine how stodgy the cake could have been had I not realised?! And I also forgot to add in half the cocoa to a chocolate cake recipe, and wondered why it was so pale as I stirred the mixture haha.
Rita (mademoiselle délicieuse) recently posted..My biggest and most ambitious cooking project ever
Pan fried gnocchi is an absolute favourite of mine! Yours look gorgeous. Interesting about the grappa (and sorry I wasn’t around to chat to about it 😉 inclusion of the grappa is definitely not something I’m used to from our family recipes. But it may be a regional specialty from a different region to where my family is from. I’ll have to ask my personal authority about it (Dad).
Amanda@ChewTown recently posted..Smashed Potatoes
Your gniocci recipe looks wonderful. I love the blue and white platter in the picture- could you tell me who made it? I plan to search want for one like it.
Thanks so much.
Hi Katy
The blue and white platter is actually a very old and treasured family piece. Sadly there aren’t any markings underneath that tell me who made it.