It's ironic that as our world is opening up, the weather encourages us to hunker down. The predictable May cold snap gave me permission to think about comfort food and slow cooking. Food that takes a while to prepare and cook, sticks to the ribs and fills the house with warm fragrance.
The veggie box now comes with pumpkin, Jerusalem artichokes, cavalo nero and wonderful new season spinach. This means I can dig into the recipes for some of my favourite northern Italian dishes contained in the books of Marcella Hazan, Antonio Carluccio and Claudia Roden. These cooks and food writers were the first to make us understand that Italian food is very regional and based on ingredients that grew locally. (something of course, Italian Australians have always known).
Potato gnocchi is from the north but loved by all. In Rome, gnocchi night is Thursday night. This is because Friday is a fasting and fish eating day so the night before you want to eat something hearty to fill your belly. Who wants to fast on an empty belly? In Rome the saying goes “Giovedì gnocchi, venerdì pesce e sabato trippa! Traditional Gnocchi Romano is actually a baked dish made with semolina and cheese ( sort of an Italian version of Mac-n-cheese! ) but now the northern potato gnocchi is also served on Thursdays all over Rome. It is so yummy it deserves a special day of its own.
The word gnocchi means little lumps but as Marcella Hazan says "gnocchi should be anything but lumpish" Whatever you make it with, it should be like eating little clouds. Ricotta gnocchi is heavenly and the ultimate in lightness.
I made two new gnocchi recipes which are below.
Ricotta and Curly Kale Gnocchi (inspired by Marcella Hazan)
around 500g of curly kale
2 tablespoons of butter
1 tablespoon of very finely chopped onion
salt
3/4 cup of fresh ricotta
2/3 cup plain flour
2 egg yolks
1 cup of freshly grated Parmesan cheese
Whole nutmeg
Take out the stalks of the curly kale and chop. Cook it in salted water until very tender. Drain and chop reasonably finely and once it is cool, squeeze as much water out of it that you can with our hands.
Put the butter and onion in a small pan cook the onion until it becomes pale gold.
Add the cooked kale and salt and cook for about 5 minutes stirring frequently.
Put this into a bowl and wait for the mixture to cool.
Add the ricotta, flour, egg yolks, Parmesan cheese and a grating of nutmeg. (about 1/8 teaspoon)
Make small balls of the mixture by rolling them gently in your hand, around 2 cm in diameter.
Drop the gnocchi a few at a time into a large pan of gently boiling water.
They are ready when they are floating on the top and have cooked for a couple of minutes.
Take them out with a slotted spoon and put on a serving plate.
Sauce
To complement the lightness of these gnocchi we ate them with a simple tomato sauce. We used a bottle of home-made passata* my sister had given me, made from the very last of the summer tomatoes.
(*Passata is just pureed and bottled tomatoes and is easily available in supermarkets, or just blend up a tin of tomatoes)
Pour passata, a good slug of extra virgin olive oil, a whole crushed garlic clove and salt into a saucepan and cook on a low heat until the tomato is cooked and has separated from the oil. It should be quite runny and light.
Pour the sauce over the gnocchi and sprinkle with Parmesan cheese.
Pumpkin Gnocchi - Gnocchetti di Zucca
I generally don't find pumpkin very interesting and it isn't a common Italian ingredient. In fact, Italians have been known to say that is is only good to feed to the pigs.
So, finding an Italian recipe using pumpkin was a slight challenge until I came across Gnocchetti di Zucca in Claudia Roden's fabulous book The Food of Italy It comes from the region of Friuli-Venezia in the very north east of the country.
I am sure le nonne of Friuli are experts in making these little dumplings smooth and round. It's quite tricky because you flick the mixture into simmering water with two spoons as it is too wet to roll out. Mine were ragged around the edges and probably too big but they were still light and very pumpkiny. This recipe was a great discovery and I am determined to perfect it over time.
800g of peeled tasty pumpkin
1 egg
around 200 grams of flour
salt and pepper
For the sauce
75g of melted butter
a few sage leaves (optional)
Grated Parmesan or Grana Pardana cheese (or if you can get it, hard salty ricotta)
Cut the pumpkin into small pieces and wrap them in foil and bake in the oven until they are very soft.
Mash the pumpkin until it it smooth.
Add the egg, salt (it needs plenty) and pepper (I used white pepper)
Work in the flour bit by bit until it becomes a smooth, firm paste
Boil a big pot of salted water and keep it at a gentle simmer.
Make the dumplings by dropping the paste by the tablespoon, using another tablespoon to push it off into the simmering water.
When the dumplings rise to the top, let them cook a few minutes longer then lift them out with a slotted spoon onto a serving dish.
Melt the butter and add a few fresh sage leaves if you want. Pour the melted butter over the dumplings and sprinkle with plenty of grated cheese.
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