This recipe is from the book Bowl Food, which was recently removed from my bookshelf back in NZ and sent over by my mum. Murdoch Books published this back in 2002-2003 along with several others in the series including sweet food and hot food. This edition has all sorts of warming Winter wonders and a few salads for good measure. Mum sent several of my cookbook collection over in our latest parcel so there was quite a bit to go through, thankfully though my post-its of recipes to try were still stuck to pages and that gave me a great starting point.
Typing this recipe out I realise that I made rather a lot of substitutions and changes to method to get this from cookbook to table. To start with I don't yet own a sieve and so I used a potato masher to make my dough. This made the potato much coarser and chunky - I definitely suggest a sieve if you have one. Due to this I kind of ignored the next paragraph in the book and hand-formed my gnocchi rather than using the method below. I don't suppose it changes things too much overall, except maybe the cooking time for the gnocchi and the aesthetics of the dish. which by this time on a Sunday I was not overly worried about. I didn't have sherry on hand either so I used red wine, adding in a little sugar for sweetness. I've also failed to find English spinach in Canada and so had to use baby spinach leaves but they wilted and tasted good all the same. Finally I just realised that I completely forgot to toast the pine nuts - something I'll be sure to do next time!
So this is somewhat of a poor effort in follow the recipe, but I think cooking is all about fun in the kitchen and making something that tastes good. I had a lot of fun (and made a lot of mess) preparing dinner tonight and it was met with approval by Wil (even the spinach!) so I think it was a success. If I were to make this dish again I think I would try and stick more faithfully to the recipe just to see what difference it made. And I may have gone for the post-it on this one, but I'm looking forward to re-reading this book with fresh eyes super soon.
500g russet or sebago potatoes, chopped
250g orange sweet potato, chopped
1 egg yolk
2 tbsp milk
1/4 tsp ground nutmeg
1 1/2 cups plain flour
1 tbsp olive oil
4 rashers bacon, thinly sliced
1 small onion, chopped
1/3 cup sweet sherry
500g English spinach
40g butter
2 tbsp toasted pinenuts
Preheat the oven to 220 degrees and roast the potato and sweet potato for 40-60 minutes, or until soft. Cut in half and leave for 10 minutes. While still warm, press through a sieve into a large bowl. Add the egg yolk and milk, then the nutmeg, 1 cup flour and 1 1/2 tsp salt. Mix well to combine.
Lightly knead the mixture until it is smooth, adding more flour if too sticky. Roll into 2cm cylinders, then cut into 2cm diagonal lengths. Indent each with the back of a fork.
Heat the oil in a large pan, add the bacon and onion, and cook over medium heat for 5 minutes, or until the onion is just golden. Add the sherry, stir well and cook for 2 minutes or until reduced slightly. Add the spinach and cook, stirring for 2 minutes, or until wilted, but still bright green. Stir in the butter and season. Keep warm.
Cook the gnocchi in boiling water for 2-3 minutes or until they rise to the surface. Drain and toss through the sauce. Throw the pinenuts over top.
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