Gluten-free golden beetroot gnocchi with pea, bacon and tomato

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This delicious gluten-free gnocchi recipe by Victoria Glass is wonderfully colourful and surprisingly easy, using a mixture of golden beetroot and potatoes. To finish the gnocchi, Victoria fries the dumplings in butter and oil, resulting in a crisp, golden outside and soft, pillowy centre.

First published in 2015

Not everyone is lucky enough to have a garden to dine in al fresco. If you are like me and live in a flat with no outdoor space, the summer can see you wasting hours perusing your dream houses with gardens on Zoopla, while fanning your hot face with brochures from the local estate agent. Forget moving house – who needs all that packing and unpacking in all this heat? Instead, why not bring a little sunshine to your table with a summery weekend lunch with friends. You can always walk it off in the local park afterwards to make the most of the hot weather.

Any cooking is hot work in this weather, so instead of spending hours at the stove in the midday sun, this recipe can be made the night before, once the weather cools down a bit, and then finished in 20 minutes with a glass of cold Prosecco in hand. People assume that gnocchi is labour intensive, but it’s actually fairly simple. The most important thing with gnocchi, is to get rid of as much moisture as possible. Most recipes tell you to boil the potatoes with their skins on, but I prefer to bake them. Not only does this get rid of more moisture, but you can also leave them in the oven unattended, while you skip off to do other things.

Rolling and cutting the beetroot and potato dough is the only fiddly part of the whole process, but I actually find it quite satisfying. Once the dumplings are made, the rest is all about minimal chopping for maximum summery flavours.

Ingredients

Metric

Imperial

Beetroot gnocchi

Pea and bacon

Method

1
Preheat an oven to 190°C/gas mark 5
2
For the gnocchi, place the whole potatoes and beetroot on a baking tray and cook for for 1 hour and 30 minutes, or until the flesh is soft and fluffy
3
While still hot, cut the potatoes and beetroots in half and scoop out the flesh. Pass through a potato ricer or metal sieve and leave to cool slightly
4
Place the mixture in a large bowl, then add both flours plus a little salt and pepper to season. Gently mix everything together until fully combined
5
Add the beaten egg and mix until a dough forms – you may not need to use all of the egg. Cover the bowl with cling film and leave to rest for 10 minutes
6
Cut the dough in half, sprinkle a work surface with flour and roll each piece into a long sausage. Cut each sausage into about 30 pieces so you end up with 60 dumplings in total. Press the back of a fork lightly into each dumpling to make the traditional line indentations
7
Bring a pan of salted water to the boil and cook the gnocchi in batches – once they rise to the surface, they are cooked. Remove with a slotted spoon and plunge into a bowl of cold water, then drain. Drizzle the gnocchi with olive oil to stop them sticking and set aside
8
Meanwhile, for the vegetables and bacon, sauté the chopped onions in a little olive oil until tender. Add the garlic and bacon and stir until the bacon has browned. Add the chicken stock and gently simmer until the liquid has mostly evaporated
9
Score the tops of the tomatoes and plunge into boiling water for 30 seconds. Drain and peel the skins off, they should easily come away from the flesh. Cut in half and scoop out the seeds before dicing the flesh
10
Add the peas to the bacon saucepan and cook for a further 2 minutes, then stir in the chopped mint. Season generously with salt and pepper and keep warm over a low heat
11
To finish the gnocchi, heat the butter in a large, non-stick frying pan, add the gnocchi and cook until golden brown on both sides
12
When ready to serve, stir the tomatoes and gnocchi into the bacon saucepan and heat through. Garnish with a few extra fresh mint leaves to serve

Victoria is a London-based food writer and recipe developer. She was the Roald Dahl Museum’s first ever Gastronomic Writer in Residence and has written six books, including her latest, Too Good To Waste.

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