Burnt Butter & Sage Pan Seared Gnocchi
This dish is literally like a hug in a bowl. When I am in need of comforting, cheering up or just feel like I deserve to be spoilt, this is the recipe for me.
The secret to making this gnocchi shine is ensuring you take the butter far enough to ensure you get that rich, velvety browned butter flavour. It also is in the sage ratio - in my opinion the more the better. The texture of the leaves become so addictively crispy, the butter from the salt seeping into the veins of the leaves as if these ingredients were made for one another.
the following recipe makes 2 serves of gnocchi
Ingredients
Gnocchi
1 russet potato, or amount equivalent of 400g, washed with skin on
1/2 cup flour, sifted, plus extra for sprinkling over your work surface
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 free range egg
60g salted cooking butter, cut into 2 30g pieces
Burnt Butter Sage Sauce
60g salted cooking butter
20 sage leaves - I sometimes use even more than this as we have a massive sage plant haha
To serve
toasted walnuts
shaved parmesen
Method
Put your potato in a saucepan deep enough to be able to cover the potato with water, with at least 2cm over it. Add cold water, and then bring the water to a boil. Once boiling, reduce the heat to a simmer and cover slightly, and cook the potato for 35 minutes, or until the potato is soft enough to pierce with a skewer. The trick is to not allow the potato to go TOO soft, aka mash potato soft. You still want the potato to make some hold to it.
Drain the water, and when the potato is cool enough to hold, peel off the skin and discard.
Now, cut the potato into chunks of a suitable size to be able to pass through a potato ricer.
Allow the potato to cool again, until it reaches room temperature, or a minimum of 20 minutes.
Lightly flour a work surface.
Cover 1-2 large rimmed baking trays with baking paper, and sprinkle some more flour on them.
Add 1/2 cup of the sifted flour, salt and egg to the potato, and mix together with your hands until a dough starts to form, You don’t want to over knead it! This will lead to tough gnocchi. The aim is to handle it as little as possible, however ensuring the ingredients mix in well enough to form a uniform mass.
8. Transfer the dough to the floured surface and wash your hands, and cover the dough with a clean tea towel to avoid it drying out,
9. Grab a tennis ball sized piece of dough, and with the palms of both your hands, roll the dough out on the floured surface into a rope approximately 2cm in diameter - make sure you add more flour if the dough begins to stick!
10. With a sharp knife, cut the rope crosswise every 2cm, to make uniform little pillows of dough. You can keep them like this, lightly squish with a fork or roll them on a gnocchi board to create texture. I prefer to roll mine on to a gnocchi board, as the crevices it creates allows for the burnt butter sauce to sink into the ridges of the gnocchi.
11. Arrange the gnocchi in a single layer on the baking paper lined trays, making sure they don’t touch . Repeat until you run out of dough, reflouring the work surface as needed. When all the gnocchi have been cut and spread out on the baking sheets, sprinkle them with a little more flour.
12. If you’re going to use the gnocchi within 2 to 3 hours, they can sit out on the bench. If you need to put them in the fridge, don’t refrigerate fresh gnocchi for more than two or three hours, as they tend to ooze water and become soggy. If you want to freeze some of it, place it in the freezer on the baking trays. once hard, remove and add to a zip lock bag for when you are ready to eat it.
13. When you are ready to cook the gnocchi, being a large pot of salt water to a boil. Tip the gnocchi into the water. Meanwhile, melt 30g of salted cooking butter in a large pan.
14. Once the gnocchi starts to float to the top of the saucepan, remove with a slotted spoon and add to the melted butter. Pan sear for 2-3 minutes per side, adding the additional 30g of butter half way, until golden. Once cooked, remove from the pan - you may need to cook some pieces longer than others, depending on how the heat is distributed in your pan.
15. To make the sauce, add 60g of butter to the pan again, and when it almost has melted, add the sage leaves. stir occasionally, ensuring the leaves are coated in the butter. Keep an eye of the butter, and when it starts to turn brown, turn off the heat.
16. Pour the gnocchi into the pan, and coat with the burnt butter sauce. Dont worry if some of the leaves break up in this process, I kind of like it this way as it adds way more crunchy texture to the dish.
17. Arrange the gnocchi in 2 bowls, and serve with toasted walnuts and parmesan.
