Deeply nutty toasted hazelnuts make a brilliant alternative to pine nuts in pesto. Delicious dolloped over your own homemade gnocchi
In our May issue (in shops and available to order online now), we have a feature by Lisa Leendertz from our series Today, Tomorrow, To Keep, with recipes for a tart for today, a bhaji for tomorrow and a kimchi to keep. So we thought we’d dig another out of our archives. This recipe is from our ‘Hazelnuts’ Today, Tomorrow, To Keep from issue 76. We hope you enjoy it again.
Serves 4
For the pesto
1 large bunch of parsley, leaves only
60g blanched and toasted hazelnuts
60g hard goats’ cheese, finely grated
150ml cold-pressed extra virgin rapeseed oil
Juice of ¼ lemon
For the gnocchi
500g potatoes, peeled and boiled
1 egg, beaten
125g plain flour, plus extra for dusting
Olive oil and butter, for frying and drizzling
For the fennel
50g butter
2 large fennel bulbs, each cut into eight wedges to serve
A few toasted hazelnuts
Hard goats’ cheese, for grating
1 If you have a food processor, put all the pesto ingredients into it and blitz together. If you’re using a pestle and mortar, crush the nuts first, then finely chop the herbs, add these and the rest of the ingredients, and pound to a paste. Whichever method you use, taste and add salt and pepper as necessary. Add a little more oil if you prefer a looser consistency.
2 To make the gnocchi, push the potatoes through a ricer, or mash them (riced potatoes make lighter, fluffier gnocchi). Roughly mix in the egg with a fork, then sieve over the flour, season with salt and work into a dough, kneading a few times. Dust a work surface with flour and roll out the mixture to 2-3cm thick. Cut into short lengths and mark with a fork.
3 Bring a pan of salted water to the boil and drop in the gnocchi in batches. Lift out with a slotted spoon when they bob to the surface after a minute or so. Drain on kitchen paper.
4 For the fennel, melt the butter in a frying pan and gently fry the fennel until caramelised (at least 10 mins). Turn and caramelise the other side.
5 If you like, you can brown the gnocchi. In another frying pan, melt a knob of butter with a little olive oil and fry the gnocchi until golden. Divide the gnocchi and fennel between four plates and top each with a spoonful or two of pesto, some toasted nuts and a little extra grated goats’ cheese.
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