Gnocchi di pane e spinaci

Serves 2

Taken from The Silver Spoon - this is like an Italian Good Housekeeping, a staple recipe book in our kitchen!

I've never had gnocchi made from bread before, so was intrigued to give it a go. The recipe was very simple - no more than 30mins from starting to serving - but I did find the finished dish a little monotonous in flavour. I think it might be better to serve 4 along with something else.

Ingredients

150g day-old bread (this was 3 thick slices of my home-made)

100ml milk

300g spinach

50g butter

40g Parmesan, grated

1 egg

50g plain flour, plus extra for dusting

Directions

  1. Tear the bread into small pieces and place in a large bowl with the milk. Set aside until the milk has been fully absorbed (you might need to stir this).
  2. Wash the spinach & then cook it in the water clinging to its leaves after washing. This takes about 5 mins in a pan with the lid on. Drain & squeeze out as much water as possible, then chop.
  3. Melt 10g of the butter in a large frying pan, then add the spinach & 20g of the Parmesan. Cook for a few minutes stirring occasionally. (I wonder if some garlic might be nice here too...)
  4. Add the spinach mixture to the bread, add the flour and the egg, and mix well.
  5. Lightly dust a surface with flour, then roll the mixture out into a sausage shape. Divide into equal-sized pieces (I made 10 in total). Roll the pieces in flour so they're no longer sticky.
  6. Bring a large pan of salted water to the boil and add the gnocchi one at a time. They take a few minutes to cook - when they rise to the surface they're ready. Remove them from the pan with a slotted spoon & place in your serving dish.
  7. Melt the remaining butter in the frying pan, and drizzle it over the gnocchi. Sprinkle the remaining Parmesan over the top too, and stir.
  8. Serve immediately :-)

This recipe tastes even better made with vegetables from Community Harvest Whetstone :)

Gnocchi di pane e spinaci in bowl