Baked Spinach Gnocchi
"My previous experience of making traditional Italian gnocchi left me thinking that it was too time consuming(and sticky) to ever try making gnocchi again. Luckily I came across this recipe when searching for and posting recipes for the Zaar World Tour 2005. The recipe comes from “Best-Ever Cook’s Collection: Vegetarian” and is super easy to make and tastes great too; what's more, it loks very swanky if baked as individual portions in gratin dishes. I think this recipe is a winner and I now make this regularly and serve it with a rich tomato sauce. Preparation time does not include cooling/chilling time for the gnocchi, but for weekday eating I find it convenient to make the gnocchi mixture a day in advance, while I'm preparing another meal; cutting out and baking the gnocchi the next day is a very quick step."
- Ready In:
- 55mins
- Ingredients:
- 9
- Serves:
-
4-6
ingredients
- 6 ounces frozen spinach, thawed
- 3 cups milk (750ml)
- 7 ounces semolina
- 2 ounces butter, melted
- 2 ounces parmesan cheese, grated
- 2 eggs, beaten
- salt and pepper
- ground nutmeg (to taste)
- extra cheese, to serve
directions
- In a large saucepan, heat the milk and when just on the point of boiling, sprinkle in the semolina in a steady stream, stirring briskly with a wooden spoon.
- Simmer the semolina for 2 minutes then remove from the heat and stir in half the butter, most of the cheese (leave some for topping the bake) and the spinach, nutmeg and salt and pepper; allow to cool for 5 minutes.
- Stir in the eggs then tip the mixture out onto a shallow baking sheet, spreading it out to 1 ½inch thickness; allow to cool completely, then chill until solid.
- Stamp out the gnocchi with a plain round cutter with a diameter of 1 ½ inches; reserve the trimmings.
- Place the trimmings in the base of a greased shallow ovenproof dish then arrange the gnocchi rounds on top; brush the tops with the remaining butter and sprinkle with the last of the cheese.
- Bake in an oven pre-heated to 375 F, 190 C, gas mark 5, for about 35 minutes until crisp and golden on top; serve hot sprinkled with extra cheese.
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RECIPE SUBMITTED BY
Mrs B
Worcester Park, Surrey
I live with my husband and 2 cats in Worcester Park; a quiet typical 1930s suburb (which no one has ever heard of!) about 12 miles South West of London.
I'm a fair weather gardener and as my husband is a vegetarian I grow a few easy vegetables, such as tomatoes and peppers, mainly in containers. My husband loves growing flowers, the brighter the better, and we have a pretty garden as a result. Our cats, Araminta and Purrl, like it too!
I do a lot of cooking and try to keep our diet as healthy and varied as possible. Although I work full time, I use very little in the way of pre-prepared foods. This is partly because of the limited choice of vegetarian meals, which I think are overpriced anyway; but mainly because I like to know what goes in my food!
I love using the Internet for all the great ideas it gives me. Last year I participated in the Zaar World Tour (under my previous public name Caroline Blakey), which was great. Mr B and I tried lots of new foods and discovered new favourite meals. Researching recipes for the Tour was really interesting, however as I didn't have time to try them all, some were posted untested. I'm still working my way very slowly through them. To make matters worse I keep seeing other recipes I want to save and have also participated in Zaar world Tour II. So many recipes, so little time to make them!
<img src="http://i18.photobucket.com/albums/b112/kzbhansen/Banners/Animation3.gif">
My 'rules' for posting recipes are a) if I wouldn't make a particular recipe, I won't post it and b) if my husband wouldn't eat it, I won't post it. This means that all my recipes are vegetarian friendly.
As you will see from the number of recipes saved in my cookbooks, I particularly enjoy making jams and chutneys; I'd say it was one of my favourite hobbies. We always have a good supply of home preserves; my friends and work colleagues are well supplied too.
If we won the lottery (say £5m, as a good number) we'd like to give up work, move to the country and buy a place with a bit of land. In my dreams this would be a manor house or old vicarage, with a walled garden, an orchard where I could keep hens, a vegetable garden, etc, etc, etc! In my more realistic moments (the £1m win perhaps) I would like to run a B&B, perhaps offering Vegetarian taster weekends. Luckily it costs nothing to dream.......I’d also love more time to read, do embroidery, learn a language, see more of the countryside; and of course play on Zaar.
