The Story
The past few years have been a wild family ride through chronic health issues, and we’re still just doing what we can to hang in there. Although I’m the main culprit behind our current dietary requirements, pasta night has evolved by necessity to include three different pasta doughs and at least two sauces. It’s an every-burner-on-the-stove kind of situation.
Gluten-free is easy enough, and we’ve had great success adapting everything to GF (as you would have noticed in recent posts), and dairy-free is not too hard either (choking back your tears at not being able to drink grated pecorino straight from the bag when no one’s looking). But grain-free is a little trickier…
So we’ve made things easier for ourselves by adding these gnocchi to the menu! As long as nightshades (or things that grow underground if you’re staring down mould-free/low-amylose diets) are not causing you any problems, potato is your friend. This recipe does include nuts, for the flavour more than anything else, but you can easily substitute it with more of the other dry ingredients.
These gnocchi are a made with a mix of potato, almond flour, potato starch, tapioca starch, egg, nutritional yeast, and xanthan gum (with the usual oil, salt, nutmeg). They’re not too heavy, have a nice chewiness to them, and fry up perfectly. And we’ve served them with a simple broccoli pesto and grain-free breadcrumbs.
I do want to stress that I’m not recommending any particularly diet to anyone, just providing options. For me, it’s been a long adventure through countless doctors’ offices, hospitas, pathology labs, etc that’s brought me to this point. I think we’ve all come far enough now to know that GF is not a fad or even tied to any one diagnosis, allergies are diverse and debilitating, and the only way that we should ever receive anyone’s ‘unusual’ food order is with compassion. I hope that these kinds of recipes make life a little easier or more interesting for someone out there, and are just as delicious for everyone else!
The Dish
Most of this can be done while the potatoes are roasting, so get them straight into the oven washed, whole, and unpeeled.
Blanch the broccoli, and then blend it up with the other pesto ingredients. You can also prepare the breadcrumbs in this time, gently frying them until golden, and then mixing with the parsley and peppercorns.
Once the potatoes are cooked and cooled, mash them up and combine with the remaining dough ingredients, kneading for 2-3 minutes and then rolling out into 1-2 cm diameter ropes. Chop them into 2 cm lengths.
Boil the gnocchi until they’re puffed up and floating, and then strain, retaining half a cup of the salted cooking water.
Fry the gnocchi over medium-high heat, shuffling, until the edges are lightly browned, and then use the cooking water to stir them into the pesto. Serve with the breadcrumbs and a crack of fresh black pepper!
Best wishes to you all, and buon appetito!
Al, Al, and El.
Ingredients
Dough
- 2 medium sized potatoes
- 100 g almond flour
- 80 g potato starch
- 60 g tapioca starch
- 1 egg
- 2 tbsp nutritional yeast
- 2 tsp xanthan gum
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 1 tbsp olive oil extra virgin
- Pinch nutmeg
Pesto
- 1 large head broccoli chopped into medium-sized pieces
- 1 large handful basil
- 40 grams pine nuts
- 2 cloves garlic peeled
- 1 heaped tbsp nutritional yeast
- 1 tbsp pumpkin seeds
- Juice of half a lemon
- 200 ml olive oil extra virgin
- Salt and pepper to taste
To Plate
- 6 tbsp olive oil extra virgin
- 60 g grain-free/nut-based bread crumbs chunky
- Small pinch of parsley leaves finely chopped
- 1/2 tbsp pink peppercorns roughly crushed (optional)
Instructions
- Bake the potatoes in their skins, in a 200 degrees Celsius oven, for 45 minutes.
- While they cook, blanch the broccoli for 30-60 seconds in a large pot of boiling salted water until bright green, and then blitz all pesto ingredients together in a food processor.
- Use 2 tbsp of olive oil to gently fry the crumbs over low-medium heat for 2-3 minutes until toasted and fragrant. Lifting out of any excess oil, mix together with the parsley and peppercorns.
- Once cooked, allow the potatoes to cool until they can be handled, and then peel before mashing with a fork (or passing through a potato rice. Once completely cooled, mix all remaining dough ingredients in with the potato. If it seems too soft, add a little more almond meal or starch. Knead for 2-3 minutes until thoroughly combined.
- Divide the dough into portions, and roll into sausages of 1-2 cm in diameter. Chop into 2 cm lengths.
- Drop the gnocchi into a large pot of salted, boiling water, and cook for 2-3 minutes. The gnocchi should rise to the surface and swell a little in size.Strain, retaining 1/2 cup of cooking water.
- Add the remaining 4 tbsp of olive oil into the crumb pan and heat to medium-hot. Working in small batches, fry the gnocchi for 2-3 minutes, shuffling regularly, until they develop a light brown crust. If you find that the unfried gnocchi begin to stick, toss them lightly in a little olive oil.
- Toss the gnocchi and pesto together in a mixing bowl, adding a little cooking water until the pesto becomes smooth and evenly coats the gnocchi.
- Serve with the breadcrumbs on top, and a fresh crack of black pepper.
