If you're wanting to impress at dinner time, this home-made gnocchi recipe will definitely fit the bill! Sprinkle with Parmesan cheese for an authentic Italian menu.
pumpkin, peeled, deseeded and chopped into 2.5cm (1in) cubes
1Tbsp.
freshly chopped parsley or sage
Directions
Step 1
Put the potatoes into a large pan of salted water. Bring to the boil and simmer for 20min or until they're just tender. Drain and cool them for 5min, then peel away the skin. Put 2-3 potatoes into a ricer and squeeze to extract the finely mashed potato strands.
Step 2
Put the flour on a large board and make a wide well in the centre. Tip the mashed potato into the well and season with the salt, a generous amount of freshly ground black pepper and the nutmeg. Add the egg and sprinkle on 75g of the Parmesan cheese.
Step 3
Using your fingers, draw the flour from around the edge into the centre of the well and mix all the ingredients together thoroughly to form a dough. Knead until smooth.
Step 4
Divide the dough into eight pieces. Roll each piece into a sausage shape about 30cm long and 1cm thick, then cut each sausage into 2cm lengths.
Step 5
Take each piece and dust it with a little flour, then use your thumb to press it against a coarse grater, rolling it briefly to make a textured curl. Put the gnocchi in a single layer on a large, flat plate or tray.
Step 6
To make the sauce, sauté onion in the oil for 5min. Add pancetta, frying for a further 5min, then the pumpkin. Season well. Add 450ml water and simmer, covered, for 30min, stirring occasionally, until it reduces to a thick sauce.
Step 7
Bring a large pan of salted water to the boil, add the gnocchi and bring back to the boil. When the gnocchi have risen to the surface, cook them for 3min, then drain and tip into the sauce. Add the herbs and remaining Parmesan cheese, stir together and serve immediately.
Prepare ahead
Freeze the gnocchi on trays covered with baking parchment, then transfer to freezer bags to store. Cook from frozen, boiling for 5min once they have risen to the surface of the boiling water (see Step 7).
An experienced and highly skilled team of food writers, stylists and digital content producers, the Good Housekeeping Cookery Team is a close-knit squad of food obsessives. Cookery Editor Emma Franklin is our resident chilli obsessive and barbecue expert, who spends an inordinate amount of time on holidays poking round the local supermarkets seeking out new and exciting foods. Senior Cookery Writer Alice Shields is a former pastry chef and baking fanatic who loves making bread and would have peanut butter with everything if she could. Her favourite carb is pasta, and our vibrant green spaghetti is her weeknight go-to. Lover of all things savoury, Senior Cookery Writer Grace Evans can be found eating crispy corn and nocellara olives at every opportunity, and will take the cheeseboard over dessert any time (though she cannot resist a slice of tres leches cake). With a wealth of professional kitchen know-how, culinary training and years of experience between them, they are all dedicated to ensuring every Good Housekeeping recipe is the best it can be, so you can trust they’ll work (and if they don’t – we’ll have the answer for why*) every time (*90% of the time the answer is: “buy an separate oven thermometer”!).
