Soft pillowy potato gnocchi. A humble but sexy way to serve potatoes. Little pillows, light and fluffy; served in a considered and luxurious sauce. This is one of my absolute favourite ways to eat potatoes. This could be date night food, it could be a meal with friends. But I prefer to make this for me; a solo dinner for when my Canadian is away for work. That said, it is no more work to make gnocchi for one as it is to make for four. It is a little more cutting and a little more rolling, but not particularly strenuous and perfectly mindless after a long day. So I do like to make a big batch, freezing portions for easy future meals.
I’ve picked a luxurious green sauce here nicknamed Popeye Sauce. I may be an adult in age, but this one of the little ways I maintain my youthfulness. I love a good cartoon and Popeye was a favourite when I was a kid. It is also that time of year, when the winter vegetables are on the way out and the spring vegetables haven’t quite started. In this case, it’s been a spinachy kind of week.
Serve the gnocchi with the pasta sauce of your dreams. A spiced tomato sauce with shavings of parmesan; or a belly warming slow cooked ragu tossed through the pillows for a night of comfort food. The options are as endless as your imagination.
Ingredients
- 1kg Agria potatoes, scrubbed but not peeled
- 1x pinch of sea salt
- 1x egg yolk
- 100 to 200gm flour
- 2 tsp olive oil
- 2x garlic cloves, crushed
- 1/2 brown onion, diced
- 120gm baby spinach
- 1/2 lemon, juiced
- 1/4 cup cream
- 1/2 cup frozen peas, defrosted
- 1/4 cup pesto
- Shaved parmesan - optional
- Salt and pepper to serve
Instructions
Preheat your oven to 200 degrees and then bake your potatoes, whole, for an hour or so until cooked through. Remove from the oven and when cool enough to handle, spilt them lengthways. Scoop out the flesh, there should be approximately 600gms. Mash it into a bowl and while warm, add the salt and egg yolk. Mix well and slowly add 100gm flour incorporating carefully as you go.
Bring a saucepan of salted water to the boil and cut off a small piece of the potato dough. It will be very soft at this stage, which is normal. Sprinkle the bench with some flour and carefully roll out the dough into a long sausage that is roughly 2 cm thick. Cut into small lengths of about 2 cm and then run each piece down the back of the fork. Gently lay each piece onto a tray lined with greaseproof paper. It is best to not do too many at the beginning until you've tested them and got the flour to potato ratio right.
Now the testing stage: Take a few of the little pillows and drop them into a simmering pot of salted water. They will sink to the bottom and when cooked, rise to the top. If they break up, the rest of the dough will need more flour. Add flour to the rest, re-roll and test again. They are cooked when they rise and float on the top. Give them a little longer and then remove with a slotted spoon. When you're happy that you've got the ratio right, prepare the remaining gnocchi and lay them on the baking tray. You can freeze them now for an easy future meal or cook them for dinner.
Cook them in batches if your pot is not big enough and while they're cooking, prepare the sauce.
Into a heavy based pan, heat the olive oil gently over a medium heat. Add the garlic and onion, cooking for a few minutes. Add in the spinach - it will look like a lot, but it does wilt down fairly quickly. Squeeze over the lemon juice and cook until the spinach has wilted considerably. Add the cream, peas and pesto. Blitz together with a stick blender until completely smooth. I use the pan but you may prefer to transfer it to a blender and create the sauce from there.
Gently toss the cooked gnocchi through the sauce and serve immediately with shaved parmesan on top and seasoned to taste.
Notes
This does make a gorgeously vibrant lunch, I would recommend taking a little lemon quarter to squeeze over the top. It will help keep the bright colour as well as lift the dish.
