Celery Gnocchi
This recipe comes courtesy of Food52 a community recipe site where the public submits their favourite recipe creations for trial by chefs. www.food52.com.
The sauce works well as a stand alone simple sauce for pasta and is a great way to use up the leaves of celery.
Gnocchi
- 5 large outer stalks of celery cleaned and chopped into 2 inch pieces
- 1 large potato (or 4/5 small) peeled and sliced in thick pieces
- 1 large egg at room temperature
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 3 cups flour (375g)
- large pot of boiling water, well salted
- Slice potato and celery and boil together. Boil until they are very soft, drain and let cool in the strainer until they are just warm, press with a fork to remove any liquid. Add to food processor and process until smooth, add egg, salt, and 2 cups flour. Pulse until you have a cohesive but somewhat sticky dough add more flour and pulse if its too sticky. Dump the remaining cup of flour onto work surface and plop the dough on the flour, knead until you have a soft dough incorporating all or most of the flour. Let dough rest for 15- 30 minutes. Bring a large pot of water to a rolling boil, add enough salt so that the water is salty. Dust surface with more flour and cut dough into 8 pieces cover dough you are not working with with a clean kitchen towel. Roll a piece of dough with your hands until it forms a long (like a thick dowel) cylinder shape, cut into 1 1/2 inch pieces, If you want to get fancy roll each piece on the back side of a fork so you have tine marks, place gnocchi on floured sheet pan, dust with a little more flour, and cover until ready to cook, continue until all dough is used. This makes a substantial amount of gnocchi so use what you need for a meal place the others on a floured parchment lined baking sheet in one layer and freeze. Transfer to a freezer bag. Put the gnocchi in the boiling water and stir to separate them, they are done when they float to the top, remove with strainer and add directly to pan with the sauce.
Celery and Mint Sauce
- 1/2 cup celery leaves with tender thin parts of the stalk finely chopped
- 1/2 cup flat leaf parsley chopped (optional – works well without)
- 2 tablespoons fresh mint chopped
- 1 clove garlic minced
- splash of olive oil for skillet
- 4 tablespoons butter (or use extra olive oil)
- parmigiano or romano (optional)
- Heat olive oil in wide pan, add garlic and saute until soft add the butter and when butter has melted add the herbs, stir to combine and cook for about 2 minutes. Saute the gnocchi in the sauce for a minute or two, top with grated parmigiano or romano cheese. Also works well as a sauce for pasta.
