Broccoli Gnocchi

Gnocchi is usually made with potatoes, but what if we change up the vegetable, just like I'm doing today? This is broccoli gnocchi, and it tastes sensational. I'm also going to serve it with a bit of a speck and cream sauce. So we'll start off with some broccoli. This is just some steamed broccoli. This then goes into the food processor, and this is a really great opportunity to use the stalks of the broccoli too. So we're going to add that in there too. To this, we're going to add some flour. So the flour really depends on how wet that broccoli is. So I always like to add about three quarters of it and one egg yolk. All right, lid goes on, and we're going to blend this until it just comes together. Okay, this has come together nicely. And this is another great thing about broccoli. It really cuts out a few of the stages of classic gnocchi. Now, this is the consistency that we're after. So I'm just going to pour this onto my bench and it's really important to work it with your hands slightly so you get that right consistency. So press it together. If it's pressing together just like this, you know you're onto a good thing. So I'm going to press that down and I'm going to cover it with some cling film. And we just want to rest this for about half an hour to an hour in the fridge. Okay, while that's in the fridge, just resting, we can get onto our sauce. Now, there's two stages to our creamy speck sauce. First, we need to make our speck super crispy. So I've just turned the heat on. The pan's not really hot yet, which is a great thing. And once that's super crispy and that fat has rendered, I'm going to remove that fat, then add some cream and let that reduce so it's nice and thick. All right, this is looking really good. You can see how much it's reduced. It's slightly thickened. I will turn the heat off now for a moment so I can add some Dijon mustard. This is going to give it a really nice piquancy and some savouriness. And then I'm going to whisk in some cheese. So while it's still hot but not boiling, we're going to add our cheese. I love pecorino. I just think it's got a lovely bitey flavour. I'm going to reserve some for our garnish later on. And then all we do is just gently mix that in. But essentially, that's our sauce done. We can add a small crack of pepper, if you like your pepper, and a tiny pinch of salt because there's enough salt in that mustard and the cheese. Fantastic. All right, let's leave that to the side for now. We'll put our speck in at the last minute too. And on to our broccoli gnocchi. Here it is here. It's rested. Now we can start rolling it out. You can make these into large ones, little ones for the kids. It's totally up to you. You will notice, because it is broccoli and not potato, that it tends to be quite sticky after it's rested for that half an hour. Not a problem. Add a little bit more flour to your board. So on to the board. I'll grab a knife and I'll cut this into four portions. It's just so much easier to handle if you're working with a small portion at a time. And this is the fun part, which is rolling the gnocchis out. So rolling it into a sausage. It gets quite long if you just move your hands along it. Then we'll grab our sharp knife, pinch and chop. And that's our little gnocchi. You can get really fancy and use a fork just to make a little indent into it. But I just like to pinch and chop, pinch and chop. And that's our little gnocchis. How good do they look? See how they're holding their shape? They're not collapsing at all. I'm going to make a few more of these and then I'm going to heat up some water. You want it to be boiling at the start, then turn it down slightly and then add them to the water. And you'll know that they're ready when they start to come up to the surface. Now, once these little broccoli gnocchis come up to the surface, just give it another minute or so so they completely cook through. And using a spider just like this or a slotted spoon, we're going to take them out of the water and straight into that yummy mustard cream sauce. And by all means, allow some of that starchy water to go into our cream sauce. Now, I'm going to finish this off with some fresh parsley. I'm just going to roughly chop this. You could also add some thyme. Would be beautiful with the broccoli. Great. I'll reserve just a tiny bit for the garnish. And in with the parsley. The speck, I'm going to add three quarters of it. The rest can go on the top because it's super crispy. And for a pop of freshness, I like the addition of some lemon zest. It just really brightens the whole dish up. Great. Alright, one little swirl. I'm going to mix it off the heat. Just being very gently with our gnocchi so they don't break up, but they're actually quite good in holding their shape. They're actually looking really good. And then into a shallow bowl. Lots of sauce. Final garnish of the speck over the top so we can see that it's in the dish. Some extra parsley and some more cheese. Some more pecorino if you're a bit of a cheese addict like I am. Broccoli gnocchi. Got to have a taste of it. Mmm. It is so flavoursome. It's not overpowering with the broccoli flavour, but they're little pillows of delight. I love this gnocchi. And it just shows if you can do it with broccoli, well, why not try it with other vegetables? Maybe cauliflower next. Enjoy.