My mission this month is to make delicious food on a budget. To get the ball rolling, these gorgeous little dumplings are not only inexpensive, they’re also such fun to make. And yes, we’re doing it from scratch.
Make an evening of it with a loved one or on your own as therapeutic you time. But be warned, start early (5pm should do) to avoid eating at midnight like I did. Oops.
The first trick to tasty budget cooking is to make sure that when you’re feeling flush at the beginning of the month, your pantry gets well stocked with all your herbs and spices.
You’ll need: (serves 4 – 6)
1 large butternut, deseeded and sliced into 8 length ways
1 tsp dried oregano
1 tsp ground coriander
tsp ground cinnamon
1 spring fresh rosemary
Olive oil
50g chilled butter, grated
400 – 600g plain flour
1 tsp baking powder
150g pecorino cheese (this can be pricey, substitute for local Parmesan-style cheese or even mozzarella)
1 tin whole peeled Italian tomatoes
1 small tin tomato paste
3 fresh basil leaves
2 tbsp sugar (or to taste)
1 punnet fresh rocket
Salt and pepper
Here we go
First up, grease a baking tray and get your oven heating up to 180 degrees Celsius. Put all your dried herbs and spices into a bowl and mix with a good lug of olive oil to make a nice rub. Lay your butternut out the tray, flesh up and rub with your mix. Cover with tin foil and pop it in the oven. After 20 minutes, remove from the oven, discard the foil and add more olive oil if necessary. Strip your rosemary sprig and rub the leaves between your palms, then sprinkle over the top and put back in the hot box for another 20 to 30 minutes or until cooked through. This is a good time to have a glass of wine, we’re about to get messy!
Remove the butternut and allow to cool. Make several cuts down into the flesh then slice it out of the skin. Pure your butternut in a blender (you made need to add a drop of water for this but the less you can use the better) then put it in a big mixing bowl.
Add 400g of flour, your baking powder and butter to the bowl and get your handy dirty. Work the mixture into a nice dough that’s stiff enough to roll, adding more flour if necessary. Divide the dough into four, dust with flour and roll into sausages of about 2cm in diameter. Slice the sausages into 2cm pieces – the beauty of these is in their irregularity to don’t be too pedantic but the more even the size, the more evenly they cook.
Get a batch of Italian tomato sauce going. Pure your tomatoes in a blender with the tomato paste and 125ml water. Pour into a pot and bring to the boil, then reduce to a simmer. Add the sugar and rip up your basil leaves and toss them in. Then leave it be to reduce while you cook your gnocchi.
Get a large pot of boiling, salted water on the go. Add half the dumplings to the water and keep them moving gently so they don’t stick together for between 5 and 7 minutes. Remove them with a slotted spoon and cook the second batch (or you can freeze them uncooked for another time).
Serve your butternut gnocchi in a bowl, drenched with your delicious tomato sauce, topped with fresh rocket leaves, grated pecorino cheese and black pepper. Magic!
Yours in food
Leigh
(This recipe was inspired by the latest Jamie magazine, which features a whole host of yummy things to do with ‘squash’. It holds a heavy price tag for a magazine but is really beautiful and jam-packed with recipes and foodie stuff. I’ve seen it at CNA and Woolworths and it was worth every cent.)
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