Gnocchi with Winter Pesto and Jerusalem Artichokes
I’ve always loved purple potatoes. Their vibrant colour makes them look pretty in a very unexpected way. I bought these some time ago at the market and wanted to make something tasty but I have to admit I struggled a lot as none of my ideas matched in terms of colour. For example, I would never wear a purple and red outfit. With this in mind, I couldn’t use tomato because it would clash with my imaginary ideal color palette.
I decided to use two winter ingredients that are very dear to me: Jerusalem artichokes and cavolo nero. I love Jerusalem artichokes because of their delicate sweet but also earthy taste and I am a big fan of the cavolo nero bitterness. These two ingredients for me are a match made in heaven. I made cute little round purple gnocchi, a delicate Jerusalem artichoke, sage and shallot cream and last but not least a cavolo nero and hazelnut pesto variant.
This dish turned out to be extremely tasty and the cream and pesto mixed together give you an incredibly interesting flavour. If you can’t find purple potatoes you will obtain the same result with regular potatoes it just won’t have the dramatic effect purple can give.
Ingredients
Gnocchi
600g purple potatoes (to be weighed raw)
150g 00 flour
1 egg
Jerusalem Artichoke Cream
1 shallot
350-400g Jerusalem Artichoke
3 leaves of sage
Salt & pepper
3 tbsps olive oil
Water (see instructions below)
2 tbsp double cream
Cavolo Nero & Hazelnut Pesto
100g cavolo nero blanched
1 handful of toasted hazelnuts
1/4 clove of garlic
50g of pecorino + extra to garnish the plate
1 pinch of coarse salt
3 tbsp of extra virgin olive oil
Green oil
3 tbsp of olive oil
Step by Step
Gnocchi
Wash your potatoes and put them in a deep pan full of cold water. Put the lid on and bring them to boil. Keep cooking them until you can easily pierce them with a fork
Drain the water and immediately cut your potatoes in half and let the rest for 5 to 10min. In this way the excess moisture will escape and you’ll achieve perfect gnocchi. Don’t let them sit longer or they’ll get sticky
Mash the potatoes and place them on your working surface creating a well in the middle. Add the flour and slightly beaten egg in the middle
Mix until the dough comes together. Stop as soon as it does as you don’t want to overwork it
Shape your gnocchi straight away. Cut a piece of dow and roll it with your hands into a long, 1cm thick, cylinder. With a knife cut your little gnocchi
Ase an alternative you can roll them into tiny little balls as I did
Use flour on your working surface to prevent the dough from sticking and once you’ve made your gnocchi rest them flat in a tray with semolina
Jerusalem Artichoke Cream
Peel you Jerusalem artichokes and roughly chop them
In a pan add the olive oil and a finely sliced shallot. Sautée for a few minutes and add in your Jerusalem artichokes and sage. Time to add in the water too, I used a small glass of water. The purpose of this is to help you cook the artichokes without sticking in the pan. As the same time the water is going to help you get a smoother cream when you blend everything at the end. Start adding a small glass of water and keep an eye on the pan. You don’t want to add too much water or you’ll risk ending up with a soup.
Season with salt and pepper and cook the artichokes until they they are soft
Blend them with two tablespoons of double cream. Taste and adjust the seasoning accordingly
This is also the moment where you can finetune the consistency of your cream. If it’s too thick add a couple of tablespoons of water. You want the cream to be smooth!
Set aside
Cavolo Nero & Hazelnut Pesto
Wash your cavolo nero and get rid of the tough stalk in the middle. Keep only the leaves
Bring water to boil and blanch your cavolo for 6 minutes
Drain the water and let it cool down
As soon as it has cooled down you simply need to blitz all the pesto ingredients together. The consistency of this pesto is slightly thicker than it normally would be but it works well because it will mix perfectly with the Jerusalem artichoke cream
Set aside the pesto and don’t wash the container you used to blitz it!
Green oil
Add 3 tablespoons of olive oil in the same container you blitzed your pesto. Blitz again and here is your green oil.
Putting everything together
Bring a big pot of salted water to boil and drop in your gnocchi. When they start coming up to the surface it means they are ready
In a plate, add your Jerusalem artichoke cream as a base
Dip a chopstick in your green oil and let it drip on the cream. This will create your green polka dots
Place your gnocchi on the cream
Add on top a dollop of thick pesto and grate some fresh pecorino
Enjoy!
Tips and cheats
Some times gnocchi can be tricky to shape. If you feel the dough is becoming too sticky it probably means it has more moisture than it should. Don’t be tempted though to add in more flour as you will probably end up having rubbery gnocchi once cooked. Be patient and try to work slowly. You can wet your hands and that will help you shape them.
If you are not convinced of the consistency of your gnocchi you can test the dough. Simply boil some water and drop a gnocco in it. See if it boils well. If it does, you can keep on going and shape the gnocchi.
There is no need to rest the gnocchi dough. You can work with it straight away. Resting it in fact might be counterproductive and make your dough sticky.
If you don’t like the idea of making your own gnocchi, just buy them! This pesto and jerusalem artichoke combo is very and tasty and goes perfectly well with regular pasta too.
Play with your pesto consistency. This is quite a thick version but you can make it thinner by adding in some more olive oil
Enjoy!
