Inspired by a trip across the Ligurian hills of Italy:
Homemade pillowy butternut squash gnocchi with creamy walnut sauce. Beautiful simplicity, this dish is an ode to using seasonal ingredients.
This creamy walnut sauce is inspired by a dish I tried during a walking trip across Liguria. A holiday I highly recommend by the way for beautiful scenery and amazing food. I was amazed at the simplicity and depth of this sauce. Creamy, slightly bitter and rich, it's the perfect showcase for walnuts which come into season during the Autumn months. I decided to pair the sauce with butternut squash gnocchi to balance out the bitterness of walnuts with the sweetness of squash, and I must say, it is a winner! Is there anything better than home made gnocchi anyway? This dish truly highlights the beauty of both seasonal squash and walnuts when at their best.
Ingredients:
Butternut Squash Gnocchi Recipe:
125g cooked potato flesh
463g cooked butternut squash flesh
1 egg yolk
80g plain flour
60g plain flour for bench top work
Ligurian Walnut Sauce Recipe:
70g walnuts
30g pecorino cheese
1 tsp grated nutmeg
Method:
Put 2 potatoes on a roasting tray with a butternut squash cut in half. Drizzle oil and salt on top and roast in the oven at 180C for an hour or until super soft! Roasting is better than boiling as it helps reduce the water content of the veg and therefore you’ll need to add less flour. Remove the veg skins (you can cover those in cheese and have them as nachos for a lunch) and mash them up as much as you can. No one likes a lump in their gnocchi so, if needed, put the mash through a fine mesh sieve, you’ll be glad you did even though it takes extra time.
Now add the flour and knead, it should be smooth and thicker but still slightly sticky. If you’re worried, do a trial run by cooking a spoonful in some simmering water to see if it stays together, when it floats take it out of the water and taste it. If it's good then it's time to shape the gnocchi. Split the dough into 4 and roll each section out into long sausages with the extra flour, then cut up into bitesize pieces.
Cook all the gnocchi in simmering salted water, do it in batches rather than all at once, each time they start to float then remove from the water and toss them in some EVOO, you can then keep them in the fridge until you’re ready to eat them.
Melt some butter in the pan and fry off the gnocchi until golden brown on both sides, then coat in your chosen sauce (or eat as is with a bit of sage and sea salt).
If you want to have them with the Ligurian walnut sauce, toast the walnuts in a dry frying pan for 2 minutes or until they start to brown very slightly.
Boil a bit of water, then blitz the walnuts with the grated cheese and nutmeg, adding boiling water as required so the sauce is nice and smooth (approx 2Tbs). I find using a hand blender best to get the smoothest consistency.
Add the sauce to the gnocchi in the pan along with an extra splash of water and cook until the gnocchi are evenly coated in the sauce. Serve with a bit of grated Parmesan on top and enjoy. Bon appétit!
Recipe Reels:
Check out my walnut sauce recipe video.
Check out my butternut squash gnocchi video.
More about this butternut squash recipe:
Shortcuts:
This sauce goes great with pasta on its own, or with some cubes of roasted butternut squash for that aforementioned sweetness.
Keys to success:
Embrace the mess! To achieve a light fluffy gnocchi that tastes like biting into a pillowy cloud (sorry, did I mention I love gnocchi a lot?), you need to put in as little flour as possible. So I recommend adding the flour in slowly as you kneed the dough, and once you can kind of shape them, test one out in simmering water. If it holds its shape then you're golden. Give it a little taste and then start rolling them out.
Once they're all cooked you can store them in the fridge coated in a bit of oil and in between baking parchment for up to 3 days. Or you can freeze them up to 3 months.
Reheat them in a bit of hot oil and frothy butter until golden on both sides.
Yes they're labour intensive, mostly because they're quite messy to make, but they are WORTH IT.
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