Pan fried gnocchi with almond and pecan pesto

Difficulty 2/5

There’s nothing like home-made gnocchi. If we make them carefully, we can make them super light and delicate instead of really heavy and dense. The part where you need to pay most attention is when choosing and cooking your potatoes. The idea is that they are as dry as possible so that we don’t have to add more flour than is absolutely necessary and so making it less heavy. You’ll love pan-fried gnocchi (if you don’t already) because even though they are still nice and soft inside, on the outside they go nice and crunchy which is really nice.

Portions: 8 dishes

Ingredients:
For the gnocchi:
– 1kg potato (pick one suited for mashed potatoes, which are typically more dry)
– 2 eggs
– 1 tbsp salt
– 220g all purpose flour + more for dusting and in case your potatoes need more flour
– Pinch nutmeg
– 50ml olive oil to cook them

For the pesto:
– 80g basil leaves
– 100g almonds
– 100g pecans
– 280ml olive oil
– 80g parmesan cheese
– 2 garlic cloves
– salt and pepper to taste

Also:
– 32 cherry tomatoes
– 50ml olive oil
– salt and pepper to taste

Procedure:
1. Stab your potatoes in several parts to help the vapour be released when cooking (resulting in drier potatoes). Put them in the oven at 200C for an hour or until they are completely cooked (a knife goes through with extreme ease).2. While they’re in the oven, we can start with the pesto. Put the pecans and almonds to toast in the oven where the potatoes are for a few minutes, only so their taste is strengthened. 3. Now we put all the ingredients for the pesto in a blender or food processor. But before, grate finely the parmesan and garlic just so we don’t have any unwanted lumps. If you want to save it at this point, put some cling film touching the surface so it doesn’t oxidize and turn brown.4. While they’re still hot (but obviously don’t burn yourself), remove with a spoon the pulp of the potato and pass it through a metal sieve. If you have a potato ricer, pass it 3 times so there are no lumps left. If you wait for it to cool down, it’s going to be more difficult to pass.5. Wait for the potato to cool down and add the eggs, salt and nutmeg. Then add the flour. What the recipe states for flour is the minimum that you will need. According to your potatoes, check if you need more. The dough will always be sticky, but you don’t need to add more the moment when you tap it and it doesn’t stick to hour hand. The more flour you add, the heavier they get, so keep it to a minimum.6. Now, flour will be your best friend. Dust a clean table (very very clean) with flour and put flour on your hands, too. Make sausages and cut portions the size of your gnocchi. At this moment you can cook them like this, “pillow” style, but I like to give them their official shape 😉7. So then I make these pillows into balls in my hand and roll them through the small wooden board (also dusted with flour) that gives them their wrinkles, and finally put them on clean surfaces that are also dusted with flour. If you’re not careful to dust everything, they’ll stick and loose their shape when you go to cook them.8. The cherry tomatoes go in the oven with olive oil, salt and pepper at 180C for 15min ot until they bloat and go soft.9. Now let’s cook the gnocchi! Put the olive oil on a pan on low heat and put the gnocchi in. We toast them approximately 2-3min each side so they’re nice and golden. You’ll also notice they go firmer, this is because they’re also cooking on the inside. Don’t hurry this process or you’ll end up eating raw egg at the center of the gnocchi.10. If you’re making several and they don’t fit in your pan, put them in a bowl as you cook them all. Then they all go back in the pan with the pesto and mix to warm it all up… YUMMYYYYYYY!11. We serve with some tomatoes and obviously parmesan cheese on the side to serve on top.

I hope you like this recipe! If you don’t feel like pan frying these, they’re the same recipe as the boiled ones, so go for it.