The Ultimate Midweek Pasta From One Of Our Favourite Chefs
This week’s Chefs Series brings a new recipe for garlic and pasta lovers out there—garlic pesto gnocchi.
Stevie Parle is a food writer and serial restauranteur, known for his most internationally renowned restaurants and was named “young chef of the year” in 2014. Since then, he has opened Rotorino, Craft London, Palatino, and Sardine, but mainly focuses on his pasta brand, Pastaio. He has released this recipe just in time for prime garlic season during spring, which in turn will create the most delicious and mouthwatering pesto sauce.
With the gnocchis’ fun green display and nutty garlicky taste, this easy midweek gnocchi recipe is sure to become a regular on your weekly rotation.
Wild Garlic Pesto Gnocchi Recipe
Preparation Time: 1 hour 40 minutes
Ingredients
- 40g blanched hazelnuts
- 280g wild garlic, washed
- 40ml extra virgin olive oil
- 100g grated Parmesan, plus extra to serveFor the gnocchi:
- 800g floury potatoes, scrubbed
- 200g ’00’ flour, plus extra to dust
- 2 small eggs, beaten
- A few gratings of nutmeg
METHOD
- Make the gnocchi first. Preheat the oven to 180C/160C/gas 4 and prick the potatoes all
over with a fork. Place in the oven for 60-90 minutes until they feel soft inside. Leave
until they’re cool enough to handle. - Meanwhile, to make the pesto wilt three-quarters of the wild garlic by blanching very
briefly in boiling water drain and set aside to cool. Place the hazelnuts in a small food
processor or blender and blitz until you have breadcrumbs. Add the wild garlic and
pulse blitz until it’s finely chopped. With the motor running, add the olive oil in a steady
stream, then the Parmesan. Transfer to a bowl. Season to taste with salt and pepper,
and put to one side until you’re ready to eat. - Scoop the flesh out the potato and mash until completely smooth. Transfer the flour to a
clean work surface and grate over a little nutmeg and a generous amount of seasoning.
Pile up the flour, then make a well in the centre, and add the potato and beaten eggs.
Bring everything together into a ball with your fingers until just incorporated and you
have a soft dough – it shouldn’t stick to your fingers. - On a lightly floured surface, divide the dough into 4 pieces. Keeping everything except
the piece you’re working on covered with a tea towel, roll each piece into 2cm-thick
sausages. Slice each sausage into 3cm pieces. You can then either roll each piece on agnocchi board or press with the prong of a fork. Make sure they’re generously dusted
with flour so they don’t stick together. Allow to rest for 20 minutes. - When you’re ready to eat, bring a large pan of salted water to the boil and cook the
gnocchi for 2-3 minutes until they float to the surface. Cook in 2 batches so they cook
evenly, transferring them to a warm mixing bowl once they’re cooked. Spoon over the
pesto, and carefully stir to coat them. Add a few splashes of pasta cooking water to
loosen the pesto to a nice consistency. Transfer to plates and grate over a little extra
Parmesan before serving.
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