Dear readers, (this week’s recipe is for everybody!)
One of my favorite chefs all time Leonardo Pacenti came up to our table, holding a plate in his hands. Not unusual because that’s really him: ‘you MUST try this, and you have to taste this dish and that one, wait I’ll be right back’. Location: Toscanini restaurant ( epic Italian restaurant for me and many, existing over 30 years, also the place where i started as an intern my career in food years ago).
the interior never really changed and remains one of the best interiors, so genuine and real
KIBBEH VS GNOCCHI
Back to the table with Leo: he puts the plate in the middle and looks at us with expectation. I look at the plate and suddenly it hits me: they look like kibbeh i yell out (the middle eastern bulghur often meat mixture shaped into torpedo’s and stuffed). Leo throws me a slightly annoyed look (saying how do you notice this straight away) but i’m already biting in a super soft potato gnocchi disguised as tiny kibbeh, stuffed with a finely minced mixture of mortadella, mozzarella and prosciutto. Drowning in sage butter. I feel like biting on a soft cloud, creamy soft and savoury. HEAVEN we tell him.
A few dishes later Leo returns to the subject and reveals his kibbeh secret: in the ravioli factory he’s running there is a Syrian guy working with them. He tried to persuade Leo to make kibbeh for the Dutch market. Leo, with his Italian palate, was not convinced and said no. I see the picture immediately: two Mediterranean men with strong heads trying to convince the other of their superior dish. But then a solution in favor of Leo: the kibbeh mould. Could it be used for stuffed gnocchi? And thus kibbeh shaped stuffed gnocchi were born!
we could actually call them cute!
Makes sense as they are just exactly the same kind of thing: in fact there are potato kibbeh with stuffings too. And those gnocchi kept on sticking in my head. Sometimes it’s like having a crush on somebody, since married life took my crushes for other different flavours away (how tragic haha) i do have other crushes now on food and dishes. Of course.
And it has been a stuffed week. Not only because of christmas dinners ( i have to say i found it less palatable with a genocide taking place simultaneously plus no christmas in Bethlehem ugh) but also because i found a lot of comfort in cooking testing and tasting stuffed things.
I had to test a delicious new style Sicilian arancini for my new Mediterranean column in delicious. magazine. Once it’s out, i will share here too, promised, because really they were so good. Again the Sicilian arancini are too related to kibbeh (if only we realised we are one big family!). In my column i start with a conversation with my Sicilian friend Roberta while making kibbeh together: i feel like i’m making arancini, she says. The same reason why Vanja van der Leeden let our common friend Saar (with Iraqi kubbeh roots) test the Arancini from her marvellous book Italopop (more on that one soon too) because when you know how to roll and stuff, you can stuff endlessly.
FROM KIBBEH TO GNOCCHI TO RECIPE DEVELOPMENT
And so i did. After the arancini came new kibbeh. With a kind of Sicilian stuffing with a blink to the arancini. Of course with a potato crust. But instead of bulghur i put fine corn flour or fine polenta. For the stuffing i used a very Sicilian mixture of spinach onions, raisins, almond among others.
But i wanted more creaminess: a dollop of mascarpone and grated parmesan for more umpf did the job perfectly. I made a kibbeh shape and stuffed it with the mixture. Fried golden and approved by Said who tasted one still piping hot. But.
Even though he liked them, i was not convinced of this kibbeh. Like Leo i can say haha. They were too much of a stuffed potato croquette and not quite kibbeh too. And realised i wanted the soft cloud.
I just had to admit while i was making kibbeh i actually wanted gnocchi too. Leo won again. But the good thing was with imagination you can always change things. I added some more flour and one egg to my potato mixture and started to roll balls and stuff them with the same mixture. Cooked in salty boiling water for few minutes and served in a melted saffron butter. I took a bite: exactly what i wanted: soft creamy and a rich sweet and savoury filling. The good thing was i would have them judged by a bunch of foodie friends that very same night because I took them to a 4th christmas day party at a friend’s house. Verdict: only love for those golden soft gnocchi’s. i can assure you a great thing to end the year with and lovely to share on one plate too! Just give your folks a fork.
yellow lamp light never brings out the best;-)
I kept some apart and today i warmed them and tossed in a saffron beurre noisette instead of melted butter. Can’t choose, both very good.
After all we ‘dutch’ love our balls the 31th. May we find back each other in love in 2024 and restore all human rights and justice.
Happy new year to you and enjoy the recipe!
GOLDEN GNOCCHI WITH A SICILIAN STUFFING IN SAFFRON BEURRE NOISETTE
serves 4
500 g mediterranean yellow potatoes
1 small egg
125-150 g fine corn flour (PAN) or fine polenta
salt
2 onions
olive oil
zest of 1/2 lemon
cinnamon
100 g spinach
4 tsp of passata
2-3 tsp of currants or raisins
2-3 tsp of mascarpone
100 g of grated parmesan cheese
3-4 tsp of chopped almonds or pine nuts, toasted
100 g of salted butter
1 tbsp of saffron
1 Cut the potatoes in chunks and boil them in salted water until soft. Leave to cool and peel.
2 Mash them finely with a mortar or through a sieve and add the flour and egg and generous salt. The exact amount of flour depends on the potato, use a bit more or less while kneading it needs to become like a kind of clay. Leave to rest while you make the filling.
3 Pulse the onions in your kitchen machine mix finely but not too much (no juice).
4 Heat a splash of olive oil (not too stingy with the oil even though expensive these days!) add the onions and some salt. Fry for 10-15 min. with the lid on. Stir often. Add the zest and cinnamon at the end.
5 Chop the spinach and add to the onions. When it’s wilted add the passata, currants or raisins and leave on low medium to low fire for 10-12 min. It should be saucy but not liquid. Add the mascarpone, parmesan cheese, almonds and more salt and pepper if needed.
6 Roll little balls (ping pong size, but they can vary in size no problem!), make a cavity inside with your thumb, add 1-2 teaspoons of filling and close the balls. Roll them again carefully until soft. If you put too much filling and can’t close them, just put a bit more flattend potato dough on top, flatten again and roll smooth, it will be allright. Make all gnocchi like this.
7 Boil salty water and add the gnocchi carefully one by one and boil them for 2-3 min. until they float. Take out with a slotted spoon.
8 Heat the butter and add the saffron (grind in a mortar or use a special saffron grinder). Add the gnocchi and toss them around lightly. Serve and enjoy! Or heat the butter with the saffron until light brown and nutty in aroma: beurre noisette. And toss.