If you're wanting to impress at dinner time, this home-made gnocchi recipe will definitely fit the bill! Sprinkle with Parmesan cheese for an authentic Italian menu.
500 g pumpkin, peeled, deseeded and chopped into 2.5cm (1in) cubes
1 Tbsp. freshly chopped parsley or sage
Directions
Step 1
Put the potatoes into a large pan of salted water. Bring to the boil and simmer for 20min or until they're just tender. Drain and cool them for 5min, then peel away the skin. Put 2-3 potatoes into a ricer and squeeze to extract the finely mashed potato strands.
Step 2
Put the flour on a large board and make a wide well in the centre. Tip the mashed potato into the well and season with the salt, a generous amount of freshly ground black pepper and the nutmeg. Add the egg and sprinkle on 75g of the Parmesan cheese.
Step 3
Using your fingers, draw the flour from around the edge into the centre of the well and mix all the ingredients together thoroughly to form a dough. Knead until smooth.
Step 4
Divide the dough into eight pieces. Roll each piece into a sausage shape about 30cm long and 1cm thick, then cut each sausage into 2cm lengths.
Step 5
Take each piece and dust it with a little flour, then use your thumb to press it against a coarse grater, rolling it briefly to make a textured curl. Put the gnocchi in a single layer on a large, flat plate or tray.
Step 6
To make the sauce, sauté onion in the oil for 5min. Add pancetta, frying for a further 5min, then the pumpkin. Season well. Add 450ml water and simmer, covered, for 30min, stirring occasionally, until it reduces to a thick sauce.
Step 7
Bring a large pan of salted water to the boil, add the gnocchi and bring back to the boil. When the gnocchi have risen to the surface, cook them for 3min, then drain and tip into the sauce. Add the herbs and remaining Parmesan cheese, stir together and serve immediately.
Prepare ahead
Freeze the gnocchi on trays covered with baking parchment, then transfer to freezer bags to store. Cook from frozen, boiling for 5min once they have risen to the surface of the boiling water (see Step 7).
The GH Kitchen Team are Good Housekeeping’s resident recipe developers and all-round food obsessives. GH Kitchen Director Sarah Akhurst is our resident hosting pro and loves nothing more than putting on a foodie feast for friends. Our GH Kitchen Manager Linzi Pucino is our very own Italian food expert (originally hailing from the North East of Scotland!) and can be found working her way through midweek recipes that cover all bases, from haggis to ragu! Our Kitchen Editor Nadine Brown loves digging into the stories behind her favourite foods and enjoys applying her eclectic tastes to more modern, flavour-forward recipes - just don't give her too much chilli! Our Junior Food Content Produce Frankie Prichard combines a love of beautiful presentation and flavour-led, seasonal cooking in her recipe development, along with a passion for bringing people together through food. With a wealth of professional kitchen experience between them, they’re dedicated to ensuring every Good Housekeeping recipe is the best it can be, so you can trust they’ll work every single time
