It’s nearly October, you’ll be thinking what you can make with the flesh of your pumpkins for halloween, this is a great alternative to the usual pumpkin soup!  Its a good meat free dish too, as its hearty and filling.

You can use pumpkin or any type of squash, I am not 100% what the squash was I used, I bought it from the market here in Spain.   

 

Ingredients:

 Gnocchi

1 small squash or pumpkin

1 large sweet potato

1 egg yolk

½ cup plain flour

salt

½ tsp grated nutmeg

 Sauce

A selection of mushrooms; I used a handful of white, chestnut and oyster, sliced

3 rosemary sprigs, 2 whole sprigs and one finely chopped

1 large clove garlic finely chopped

½ onion sliced

100ml double cream

1 large glass white wine

½ juice of a lemon

100ml water

Olive oil for frying

1 tbsp. butter

Salt

Cracked black pepper

Method:

Heat the oven to 200 degrees.

Cut the pumpkin or squash into half and scoop out the seeds. Place one half cut side down onto a baking tray and quarter the other half. Place one quarter on the tray (save the other quarter for later.) Drizzle with oil and sprinkle with salt and bake until soft.

 

Peel and chop the potato and boil in salted water until soft.  Drain, mash and cool.  Do not add anything to this yet.

Once the pumpkin is soft remove from the oven and let it cool slightly. Then remove the skin and place the flesh into a bowl, mash this up to be a puree.

 

Mine made a cup of puree, so I added a cup of potato mash to the bowl. Match up the potato to the squash.

 

Add the nutmeg, egg yolk, a good pinch of salt and cracked black pepper.  Mix well.

Now sprinkle in about a quarter of a cup of flour, and with your hands mix it until it forms a soft dough.  It will be fairly sticky but I like to add less flour at this stage and more when I roll as too much flour will make the gnocchi dense.  Add a little more flour if the dough is not forming.

Flour a clean surface well, then empty the dough out and knead for a minute and form into a rounded ball.  Cut into four.

 

Take each quarter and roll into a sausage adding more flour so it does not stick.  Cut nuggets about an 2cm wide and set aside, continue to roll and cut the rest of the dough.

 

It is up to you if you want to shape the gnocchi; you can just leave them as it, I rolled mine on a back of a fork.

 

 

Once formed pop onto a floured baking sheet ready to cook.

 

Take the other quarter of pumpkin/squash and slice finely and remove skin, then place on the same baking tray with two whole rosemary sprigs, salt, pepper and a drizzle of oil.  Cook in the oven until caramelised and soft.

 

 

For the sauce heat a little oil in a skillet or frying pan, add the onions and cook until soft. Then add the mushrooms cook with the heat high for a few minutes then pop the onion/mushroom mix in a bowl and set aside.

Next start to cook the gnocchi in salted boiling water in two batches, once they float they are cooked.

In the skillet heat the butter and a little extra oil, pop in the garlic and the chopped rosemary,.

 

Add the cooked gnocchi.  Let the gnocchi stick and brown in the skillet.

 

Once you have good colour add the onion/mushroom mixture back in along with the wine.  Let this bubble and reduce down, then add the lemon juice and lots of black cracked pepper and a pinch of salt.  Pour in the cream, stir carefully then add the water.

 

 

Remove the sliced pumpkin/squash from the oven and add these to the gnocchi, mix well then pop the skillet in the oven for ten minutes.

 

 

Serve with a shaving of parmesan and some crusty bread!!

 

 

Enjoy xx

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