Plate du Jour

After the burger session I was a bit “traumatized” so I didn’t cook much and I didn’t look at my camera either! On Friday though I opened the fridge and guess what… I had about 2,5 kg of pumpkin, according to my calculation. Oh my! I have absolutely no clue what happened there on the way and how I managed to buy this amount of pumpkin but there was no way out. We HAD to eat it! The quickest way to use it up was to make these delicious gnocchi I’m showing you today. I know many ways of making them, and I will share them at some point, but to be honest this recipe is one of my favorites. Of all times that is. Pumpkin gnocchi is one of the best foods I’ve ever had and cooked- really! I love the fact that is mainly made out the veggies- and here I have to tell you, that before I left my country I didn’t know the taste of pumpkin at all. It’s not popular down there. We eat pumpkin seeds true, but the rest of it not really. My grandma was growing them in the garden, but she was using them as a house decoration! I still remember that 😀 I discovered this fantastic vegetable when I was in my thirties, and since then I never stopped eating it. At home my boyfriend and I really like pumpkin soup, roasted pumpkin, pumpkin with potatoes and many other things, among which we also love these pumpkin gnocchi.

Did you know that pumpkin is low in calories- it matters of course!- in 100 g only 26 calories. But that’s not the only advantage of eating this vegetable. Pumpkin is naturally rich in dietary fiber, minerals such as copper, calcium, potassium and vitamin A– and here as an interesting thing girls- this is a very strong anti-oxidant, which is necessary for our skin to keep its integrity. Only 100 g of pumpkin provides 246% of our RDA, and it means that it’s the highest level among the whole Cucurbitaceae family! Using a bit less scientific language- the more we eat it, the better for our wrinkles eghm… I speak for myself of course! After this news I can already see those queues in the grocery stores tomorrow 😀 You know while doing this little research online, it made me think, that we spend so much money on creams, beauty masks and so on, when The  Nature gives so much and it has been always there for us, we just don’t know about it. Oh don’t get me wrong, I’m not saying that the beauty mask is bad for us 😀 not at all! I simply think we could trust  The Nature a little bit more. She knows what’s good for us for sure.

I have to honestly admit, that this time I went a bit wild with the pictures. Because I COULD ! I had a day off 🙂 The colors of pumpkin and the basil leaves and other greens I used, all this was very inspiring. So this time I decided to share more pictures. I hope you will enjoy it. You can also see some sneak peak post on my FB page, where I share some pictures in advance of publishing my recipes, and those are usually not included into my posts here.

 Ingredients

Makes 4 servings- but we managed in two 😀 , preparation time- about 45-50 min, time in the oven- 30 min, oven temperature- 180 C, cooking time- around 5 min each tranche of gnocchi

1. 1 kg of pumpkin
2. 200 g of flour- any type, have another 100 g or so prepared in case the dough is not thick enough
3. 2 eggs
4. nutmeg- just a pinch
5. butter- to grease the frying pan so not more than 10 g
6. smoked scamorza- you can use any other smoked cheese, but this one goes particularly well with pumpkin gnocchi. I used a small piece- size of a walnut is enough.

Pumpkin Marinade

1. 5 tablespoons of olive oil
2. 1-2 cloves of garlic
3. basil leaves
4. thyme
5. chives
6. salt, black pepper

Mushrooms and petit pois dressing

If you are not vegetarian, you can add some pancetta- 3 thin slices is enough, it will give this nice smoked taste to the dressing, if this is not an option, please follow as stated below

1. 200 g of petit pois- fresh or frozen
2. 100 f of mushrooms- I used brown champignons
3. 2-3 tablespoons of olive oil,
4. salt, black pepper
5. some water aside

Method

In advance prepare the marinade. In a glass jar combine together the olive oil, crushed garlic, chopped basil leaves, thyme and chives. Add also the salt and black pepper. Please DO NOT forget to add SALT. Leave aside for a few minutes. You can also preheat the oven.

Prepare the pumpkin. Cut it in reasonably big but thin pieces, you can peel each piece before or after it’s roasted.  Place them on a parchment paper (on a baking sheet of course!) and spread the marinade all over. Try to cover all pieces with the marinade evenly. It’s very important so that each piece has some salt on it. I don’t know why is that, but if you forget to add some salt to the pumpkin, once it’s roasted it will be too late. Once the pumpkin is ready leave it aside for about 10 min and later on place in it the oven for 30 min.

While the pumpkin is roasting in the oven you can prepare the mushrooms and peas dressing. In advance slice the mushrooms. If you use pancetta, slice it into small pieces, fry it for a few minutes, add the peas and the olive oil, fry all together for about 5-6 min, stir it occasionally, then add the mushrooms. I added some water as well. Fry altogether until the peas and the mushrooms are tender. If you don’t use pancetta, start with the mushrooms as they can nicely replace it, just fry them first and then add the peas. Don’t forget about the seasoning. Once the dressing is ready set it aside. You might have to reheat it when the gnocchi are ready.

After 30 min the pumpkin is definitely ready. Set it aside for a few minutes, and peel it if necessary.

In order to make the gnocchi dough you will have to crush the pumpkin. I did it separately on a baking sheet and then just placed everything in a big glass bowl.

When the pumpkin is properly crushed, add the flour and the eggs. Combine all ingredients until the dough gets a creamy consistency. Remember that pumpkin contains a lot of water, so it’s quite possible that you might need more than 200g of flour. I usually have another 100g ready in case I need it. Add also some nutmeg- freshly ground would be the best.

When the dough is ready, in a big sauce pan prepare some water and bring it to a boil. This is the most complicated part of the whole procedure, mostly because you really need to be able to figure out if the dough is thick enough, so the shape of your gnocchi is going to be nice and “gnocchi like” ! So now how to cook them ? What I do is, I take two teaspoons and I use one to chop off a gnocchi-sized portion of mixture in the bowl. Then I use the second spoon to scrap the little gnocchi and I let it drop into the boiling water (not sure if you can see it properly on the picture below). Repeat this procedure for each gnocchi- each tranche not more than 10-12. Before you start cooking gnocchi prepare also a big skillet with some butter.

Cooked gnocchi will float to the top, leave them for another 2-3 minutes and then strain and place in a big skillet. Repeat with each tranche, until the skillet is full of gnocchi. For me it was two rounds- my skillet is really big though.

Fry gently the gnocchi with some butter for about 4-5 minutes and serve immediately. Add the mushrooms and peas. As the last thing grate some scamorza and sparkle the cheese over gnocchi. They are delicious. I can promise you that!