Homemade gnocchi recipe

A first attempt at homemade gnocchi. This has been on my to do list for a while now after trying the authentic stuff in Italy and the dry, vacuum packed version at home never measuring up! You do need to dedicate some time to prepare these mini Italian dumplings, and I received more than one side-eye from my boyfriend asking ‘all this effort for gnocchi?!’. But it’s worth it even if only to say you’ve done it once. And the taste and texture will always beat the shop bought version (but perhaps not that restaurant in Rome!).

Serves 2

You'll need:
450g potatoes – russet and yukon are good for making gnocchi
1 cup / 150g plain flour
1 egg, beaten
Salt and pepper

Peel and cut potatoes into quarters

Place chopped potatoes in a saucepan and pour in boiling water from your kettle, to cover the potatoes
Generously salt the water
Allow to cook until tender – approx. 25 mins

Once cooked, remove from heat and drain the water from the saucepan. Leave to stand for a couple of minutes and then rice the potato or mash with a potato masher, ensuring no lumps.

Leave the potato to cool.
Turn out onto a surface and spread the potato out slightly. Pour over the beaten egg and sprinkle over approx 100g (two thirds) of the flour. Being careful not to over-knead the mixture, combine the ingredients together with your hands, using a folding motion.

The amount of flour needed will depend on the water content of your potatoes. As you fold, sprinkle more flour over the mixture as required. You need the mixture to hold together and not be too sticky, but you also don’t want it too dry as this will make the gnocchi dense.

Once all ingredients are mixed together, shape the dough into a log shape.

Flour a clean surface and chop a 2 inch slice from the log. Sprinkle the section with flour and roll with your hands into a sausage shape.

Now using a sharp knife, chop 1-1 ½ inch pieces of dough dumpling

To shape the gnocchi:
Using the back of a fork, place a dumpling on the back of a fork and slowly roll the segment down the fork tines. At the same time, use your thumb to press lightly on the dough to form a small indentation on the back.

This step isn’t essential but helps the sauce to cling to the gnocchi.

Place shaped gnocchi dumplings onto a lightly floured baking sheet until ready to cook.
 

To cook: Drop the gnocchi  into a pan of lightly salted, boiling water. Stir once gently with a wooden spoon, being careful not to break up the gnocchi. After a minute or so, the gnocchi will rise to the surface of the water. Allow to cook for approx 20 seconds more, the remove with a slotted spoon and serve with a sauce of your choice.

Crispy sweet potato fries recipe

Follow these 5 simple steps on how to make oven baked crispy sweet potato fries.

You’ll need:
2 – 3 large sweet potatoes
1 tablespoon polenta/cornmeal
Paprika
Sunflower oil
Salt to taste

Preheat oven to 200 degrees c / 390 degrees f 

1. Chop: Peel your sweet potatoes and cut them into fry shapes (long and thin). The thinner you cut your fries, the crispier they will be.
Tip: To easily chop your potatoes, cut a thin slice from one side of the potato – this will give you a flat base to work from. 

2. Soak: Place your cut fries into a large bowl and cover with water for approx. an hour. This step removes some of the starch from the potatoes, and is going to allow those fries to crisp up on the outside during cooking.

3. Dry: Drain and pat dry with kitchen roll. 

4. Season: Sprinkle over the polenta/cornmeal and shake the bowl to give an even coating to all of the fries. Now add 1 tablespoon of sunflower oil and 1 teaspoon of paprika and toss to coat.

5. Bake: Line 2 baking sheets with foil, pour a teaspoon of sunflower oil on to each sheet and use a pastry brush to coat the foil evenly– add more oil if needed (alternatively spritz with non-stick cooking spray).

Lay out the fries on to the sheets in a single layer, making sure they’re not touching.

Place the sheets in the pre-heated oven for 15 minutes.

Remove from the oven and use a spatula to flip the fries over. After flipping ensure single layer is maintained and the fries are not touching. Place the sheets back in the oven for another 10-15 minutes – put the tray that was previously on top at the bottom and vice versa, to ensure even cooking.

Once the fries have crisped up on the outside and are cooked through, remove from the oven and toss with salt to your taste. Serve with your dish of choice.

 

Shredded duck leg noodle salad

Duck legs have featured religiously on my shopping list for the past 4 years. One of the first meals my boyfriend and I cooked together (by cooked I mean threw in the oven and left for 2 hours) was Nigella’s roasted duck legs and potatoes tray bake, and it's made an almost weekly appearance ever since. Mainly because it’s so easy but also because it.tastes.so.good.

However by the 208th time (RIP ducks, sorry) replicating Nigella’s recipe, it got a tiiiiiiny bit repetitive. It’s still on the trusty meal rotation but we mixed up the devouring of duck legs with this noodle salad recipe.

It’s still a ‘leave em and love em’ recipe, with just a few additional mins required to prep and fry the other ingredients. 

Serves: 2

Ingredients
2 x duck legs
Few sprigs of fresh thyme
Salt and pepper
1 red chilli, chopped
Bunch of spring onions, sliced diagonally
Ginger (thumb sized piece), grated or chopped
2 nests of noodles (your choice – udon noodles or egg noodles work well)
Soy sauce
1 tablespoon white rice wine vinegar
Sunflower oil

Preheat oven to 160 degrees c / 320 degrees f

• Season the duck legs with salt and pepper and place in a small roasting tin. Prick the skin all over, to allow the fat to escape during the cooking process, and let a few sprigs of thyme fall over and around the duck. 
• Put in the preheated oven for 2 hours; the result will be crispy skin and tender meat falling off the bone.

• Remove the duck from the oven and place the legs on a carving plate to cool. Use two forks to shred the skin and meat from the bone and place in a bowl.
• Boil the kettle and fill a saucepan with enough water to cook your noodles, and add a pinch of salt. Drop your noodles into the water and cook as per packet instructions (eg 5 minutes for udon noodles)
• Meanwhile, heat a tablespoon of sunflower oil in a frying pan and fry the chilli, spring onion and ginger. 
• Add a splash of soy sauce and the rice wine vinegar and allow the ingredients to simmer in the pan for a couple of minutes. 
• Add the shredded duck and a splash more soy sauce to coat.

• Stir for a minute or so and then once your noodles are cooked, drain and drop them into the pan. Stir everything together and at this stage you can add more soy sauce to your taste. 
• Once everything is mixed together evenly, remove from heat and serve with a crisp mixed leaf salad.