Baked Gnocchi with Bacon & Bocconcini

Depending on what our plans are I tend to like to cook more complicated, drawn out recipes on a Sunday but on this occasion hubby (although he was only bf at the time!) was in Cambridge and I was in North London for the day so I wanted something quick yet lovely and comforting (comfort food for me is a 12 month a year thing - but was particularly so in my rather pregnant, at the time, condition).

The week before I was in Borough Market with my friend BGJ to pick up some bits and pieces and we tried some fresh gnocchi from one of the Italian stands there. Oh my god, they were so good so my plan had been to come up with a recipe (this) and go back to pick up some of the gnocchi to go in it.

Unfortunately life intervened and I couldn’t make it down there to pick up some of that incredible gnocchi but I still really wanted this so popped into a Tescburys to pick up some ready-made stuff.

I might be wrong but I wonder if that was the way to go - non-refrigerated shop bought gnocchi tends to be quite firm which I think would prove to be a good thing. I used ready-made gnocchi that was refrigerated with the fresh pastas and that was on the edge if I’m honest. I suspect that the more delicate homemade type would have collapsed into mush with the baking. But anyway - give this a go, it is pretty good.


Baked Gnocchi with Bacon, Mushrooms & Mozzarella
serves 2-4 (you may have leftovers)

1 pack shop-bought gnocchi (400-500g)
1 tsp olive oil
1 small banana shallot, finely chopped
150g bacon, chopped
100g mushrooms, thinly sliced
2 garlic cloves, thinly sliced
¼ tsp red pepper flakes
1 400g tin chopped tomatoes
1 tsp tomato purée
125ml (small wine glass) white wine
handful cherry tomatoes, halved
½ tsp sugar
2 tbsp double cream
salt & pepper to taste
100g bocconcini, halved (or mozzarella, torn into chunks)
handful basil leaves, torn

Preheat oven to 200°C.

Bring a large pot of salted water to the boil and cook the gnocchi following packet directions. Drain.

Meanwhile heat the oil in a large heavy-based sauté pan over medium heat. Cook the onion, stirring, for 5 minutes until softened but not coloured.

Add bacon and cook, stirring, for a further 5 minutes or until the bacon is starting to crisp with most of the fat rendered. Add mushroom and garlic and cook for 3-4 minutes or until mushroom is soft.

Add the wine. Cook, scraping any bits from the base of the pan, for 3-4 minutes or until wine reduces by half. Stir in the tomatoes and tomato purée, sugar and red pepper flakes and simmer for 5 minutes.

Remove the pan from the heat and stir in the cream, basil and seasoning.

Add the drained gnocchi to the sauce and transfer to an oven-proof dish and top with the torn bocconcini.

Place in the oven and bake for 15-20 minutes until the mozzarella is melted and golden. Remove from the oven and allow to rest for 5 minutes before serving.

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Heirloom Tomato Galette

The term galette, or more properly Breton galette is of course the name given in most French crêperies to large savoury buckwheat flour pancakes. But the name does also apply in French cuisine to designate various types of rustic free-form tarts or cakes. And that is what we have here.

I took this recipe from here with, I think, no adaptations which is something quite unusual for me. I made a trip to Borough Market avail myself of some heirloom (aka heritage) tomatoes as they are of course so beautiful, but you could use supermarket tomatoes: Tesco do some very tasty Kentish ones in fact. If you use cherry tomatoes as well as medium, simply halve these before roasting in the oven.

You could move away from the “Caprese” theme of this particular tart and use a different cheese too: perhaps a nice goat’s cheese. What is important is that you dry it out a little for ten minutes or so before adding to the tart if it is a quite wet cheese (as of course mozzarella is) else it will be too soggy


Heirloom Tomato & Mozzarella Galette
serves 2-4

1 packet ready rolled puff pastry
1 ball of fresh buffalo mozzarella
4-5 medium heirloom tomatoes, sliced about ¼” thick
6-8 fresh thyme sprigs
10 leaves fresh basil
1 egg beaten with 1 tablespoon water
butter
balsamic glaze
sea salt and freshly ground black pepper

Preheat oven to 180C.

Lay the tomato slices on a baking sheet covered with baking paper, sprinkle over thyme, salt and pepper and bake for 20-25 minutes.

Remove from oven and set aside to cool.

Take ball of mozzarella and wring it in paper towel to remove some of the moisture. Cut slices of cheese and lay on paper towels for 10 minutes to draw out more moisture.

Roll out the pastry so it is overhanging the sides of a 9″ pie or tart dish by an inch and a half. This is quite a rustic tart so there is no need to be perfect at all.

Place mozzarella slices on the bottom, then the tomato slices in whatever pattern you like.

Fold the dough at the sides back over the top of the galette and then brush the dough with egg wash.

Pop in the oven and bake at 350 for 45 minutes -1 hour.

Leave for a while to cool to room temperature then serve drizzled with balsamic glaze and sprinkled with basil leaves.

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Mutter Paneer

Mutter (or mattar) paneer is the classic north indian punjabi dish of paneer (“cottage” cheese) and peas (mutter) cooked in a spiced tomato-based gravy. This has now been added to my rotation of vegetarian dishes to pull out on a weekly basis, it is that good. That said, the sauce is so delicious that I’m going to cook a meat curry with it as the base: chicken or lamb I think. It really is seriously good so if you want to try something different for a veggie main give this a whirl.


Mutter Paneer
serves 2

225g paneer cheese, cubed
1 tbsp clarified butter (or ghee)
2 tbsp groundnut oil
1 onion, chopped & puréed in a spice grinder
1½ tbsp garlic paste
1 tbsp ginger paste
3 cloves
1 tsp cumin
¼ tsp ground turmeric
1 tsp garam masala
½ tbsp Kashmiri chilli powder
1tsp coriander powder
400g canned diced tomatoes
1 red chilli finely chopped
250ml water
125g frozen peas
pinch of asafoetida (optional)
1 tbsp dried fenugreek leaves (kasuri methi)
salt, to taste
2 tbsp cream
coriander leaves, finely chopped to serve

Heat the clarified butter in a heavy bottom frying or sauté pan and fry the paneer cubes until they are lightly browned. Remove and set aside.

Heat the oil in the pan, add the onion purée and fry until it turns a pale brown.

Add the tomato paste, ginger and garlic pastes and fry for another couple of minutes before adding the coriander, cloves, cumin, turmeric, garam masala & chilli powder and red chilli.

Fry, stirring continuously till you have a glossy thick paste that has darkened a bit.

This would be the "oil separating phase" often seen in Indian recipes if the usual quantity of oil had been used but I'd reduced the oil substantially so this is what you can look out for.

Add water, bring to a boil and then reduce to a simmer. Cover and cook for 20 minutes.

Add the asafoetida and fenugreek leaves plus the fried paneer and peas and bring to a boil again.

Simmer for 10 minutes until peas are tender and the sauce is slightly reduced. Add salt to taste then remove from the heat & stir in the cream.

Serve with plain boiled basmati rice and garnish with the chopped coriander leaves.

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Mozzarella & Pesto Stuffed Chicken

This is another recipe where you have an excuse to pound away at chicken breasts with a rolling pin: being a good stress reliever if you need it.

We had this with some broccoli roasted with garlic but really you can have whatever you like: spuds, salad, even pasta. And of course the same really goes for the chicken: it stands to reason that you can stuff it with all sorts of goodies rather than the pesto and cheese.


Mozzarella & Pesto Stuffed Chicken
serves 2

2 boneless, skinless chicken breasts, pounded until thin
2 tbsp pesto (I used the chilli pesto we’d had in this pasta dish)
2 tbsp half fat crème fraîche
2 tbsp grated mozzarella cheese
1 egg, beaten
3 tbsp finely grated Parmesan cheese
3 tbsp panko breadcrumbs
freshly ground black pepper

Preheat the oven to 190C and spray a small ovenproof dish with non-stick spray.

In a small bowl mix together the pesto, crème fraîche, and grated mozzarella and then spread half of the mixture over each flattened chicken breast, stopping about ½ inch from the edge of the chicken.

Roll up the chicken breasts and secure them with a couple of wooden toothpicks.

Have two bowls ready: one with the beaten egg and the other with the panko breadcrumbs mixed with the Parmesan, seasoned with black pepper to taste.

Dip each chicken breast roll first into the egg mixture and then into the Parmesan breadcrumbs, patting it on to ensure that each roll is well-coated with the mixture.

Put the chicken into the baking dish and bake until the chicken is firm and lightly browned, about 30-35 minutes.

Serve with accompaniment of your choice.

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Casarecce with Asparagus, Sausage & Ricotta

Casarecce is a fairly new pasta shape for me: basically short lengths of pasta that have been rolled across their width, with each side rolled in the opposite direction. The rolled length is then slightly twisted so that the pasta is in the shape of a "S" when viewed from the end.

You could however use any short pasta for this - the original recipe (I can’t, unfortunately, remember where that was) that I adapted for instance called for gemelli. Similarly any spicy sausage could be used too - I used sausages that have been seasoned in a Chorizo style rather than actual cooking chorizo and they worked very well.


Casarecce with Asparagus, Sausage & Ricotta 

serves 2

100g thin asparagus, trimmed and cut into 2 in lengths
150g casarecce
130-150g chorizo style sausages (2 fat sausages), removed from skins & “crumbled”
1 small onion, finely chopped
2 tbsp double cream
95g ricotta
15g Parmesan, finely grated
4 basil leaves (optional)
sea salt and freshly ground pepper (to taste)

Bring a large pot of salted water to a boil and add the asparagus. Cook for a few minutes until just tender then remove with a slotted spoon and plunge into iced water to stop cooking and refresh.

Bring the water to a boil again, add the pasta and cook according to packet directions.

Meanwhile heat a large sauté or frying pan and cook the sausage and onion until the meat is browned and the onions softened. Drain any fat that has rendered from the sausages and add the asparagus, cream, and a small pinch of salt and simmer for 2 minutes.

Drain the pasta, reserving some cooking water, and add the pasta to the sauté pan along with the ricotta, a good grind of black pepper and 2-3 tbsp of the reserved pasta water.

Stir around carefully so that everything is mixed well.

Add the Parmesan and stir again then serve immediately garnished with the basil leaves.

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Pasta with Oven Roasted Tomatoes, Broccoli & Lemon

Blimey! Well it has certainly been a while since I posted. To say the least. Usually I annoy myself by excusing myself for the laxity of my posting but on this occasion I have a really, really good excuse - I only went and had a flipping baby! Two months ago in fact but today he is blissfully napping and for once I don't have a million other things to try and cram into these infrequent moments of quiet.

So without further ado, onto the recipe. Essentially this is adapted from here but I decided to make my own oven-roasted tomatoes as I had the time to do so (obviously we're going back a while and this was pre-baby: if you choose to do the same, make them ahead of time: either a couple of hours before you cook the pasta or further in advance as they will keep for a little while, particularly if you coat them in a bit more olive oil. Otherwise you could buy some sunblush tomatoes from the shop.

Obviously if I had the time to do the tomatoes I probably should have also made pesto but we had a little in the fridge from a chicken dish I had made a few nights before (Prosciutto wrapped chicken with asparagus for dinner guests).

I should really have used feta here, as per the original recipe, but I’d already bought some ricotta for a different recipe (this one) so decided to use that. In all honesty I think feta would have worked better in both: it has a lovely salty tang that would work well. The ricotta doesn’t really add anything. Lesson learned and all that!


Wholewheat Penne with Oven Roasted Tomatoes, Broccoli & Lemon
serves 2

150-200g whole wheat penne
100g tenderstem broccoli
10-15 cherry tomatoes, halved
1 fat garlic clove, sliced plus 1 small garlic clove, crushed
few sprigs of thyme
2 tbsp olive oil
2 tbsp basil pesto
20g ricotta (or feta)
juice of ½ lemon
small handful basil leaves, chiffonaded

To make the oven-roasted tomatoes, preheat the oven to 150C and in a bowl toss the tomatoes with the olive oil, sliced garlic, thyme and some freshly ground black pepper and sea salt together.

Leave to one side for about ten minutes.

Line an oven-proof tray with baking parchment and tip the tomatoes and seasonings out onto it, spreading out quite reasonably.

Pop in the oven and roast for about 45 minutes, turning the tray halfway through. Turn the oven down to about 100C and roast for a further 45 minutes, again turning the tray after 20-25 minutes. Remove from the oven and set aside.

Cook the penne according to package directions. Adding the broccoli for the last 1-2 minutes of cooking.

Drain and return both the pasta and broccoli to the pan over a low heat.

Add the tomatoes and garlic to the pan with the pasta and baby broccoli and sauté for 1-2 minutes until fragrant.

Add the pesto, half of the ricotta, and the lemon juice. Toss in the pan until well combined. Remove from heat and add most of the basil.

Serve immediately sprinkled with the remaining ricotta and basil.

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