Cookbook of the week - week 11, part 2

    I've made pesto many times but never gnocchi to go with it. Sarah Woodward's The Classic Mediterranean Cookbook gives straightforward instructions, and though this is not a quick process, it's a very satisfying way to spend a couple of hours, and the end result is certainly worth the time involved.

    The potatoes are boiled in their skins and then peeled and mashed with salt; flour is gradually worked in, and that's all there is to the dough - there was no egg in this recipe. Left to sit while you make the pesto - much pounding and crushing and that lovely bruised basil scent througout the house - the gnocchi need only a minute or two in boiling water, and they have a surprisingly subtle, delicate flavour which makes them a great foil for punchy taste and coarse texture of the pesto.

Comments

[Dark Puss]

I'm impressed, but I feel this is one of those things I'm never likely to spend a couple of hours on. I will just continue to buy them from my local delicatessan. We often eat gnocchi with a gorgonzola cheese sauce; do you?

[lila]

Those look really good! I am not fond of gnocchi but love pesto, so this might be wonderful!

[MzTallulah]

I grew up eating homemade gnocchi once a week, so I never thought of them as something exotic or complicated (we usually had ours with tomato sauce, or melted butter with a few sage leaves fried in it). Have you ever tried pumpkin gnocchi? I like them much better than the potato variety, especially if the pumpkin is roasted instead of boiled.

[Cornflower]

No, I've never had them with gorgonzola.
Ever since I saw Nigella saute them in olive oil to make (sort of) 'roast potatoes' - she calls them 'roastini', I think - we've done them that way often.

[Cornflower]

Good pesto is wonderful, isn't it?

[Cornflower]

I've never tried a pumpkin version but that does sound good.