Gnocchi with Broad Beans Bacon and Pea Pesto

This is the time of year when my food photostream turns green , peas and beans.

Pea Pesto so deliciously sweet you think you must have added some sugar, add a dash of goats cheese,  lemon and mint to the recipe below and it’s lovely on some toasted french beans.

Here it add some extra green zing as a vegetable pesto. Topped here with some foraged tri-corned garlic but some purple chive or garlic flowers would be lovely too.

Gnocchi with Broad Beans Bacon and Pea Pesto

200g of potato gnocchi (recipe below)
2 rashers of thick cut smoked bacon
200g of broad beans
2tbsp of greek yoghurt
200g Pea Pesto (recipe below)

1. Cook the gnocchi til soft add the broad beans for the last few minutes (fresh will take double the length of frozen)
2. Fry the bacon til crispy, stir in the broad beans.
3. Add the cooked gnocchi and quickly stir in the pesto and yoghurt
4. Taste and season with extra black pepper

If you want to make this vegetarian skip the bacon and add some crumbled goats cheese to the pesto.

Pea Pesto
200g of peas
1 clove of garlic finely chopped
3 tbsp of extra virgin olive oil
Pinch of salt and pepper

1. Puree together the peas, garlic , oil
2. Taste and season with salt and pepper

Gnocchi

Makes enough for 4 people ( so you can freeze half for the above recipe)

1kg of potatoes
400g of flour ( but you may not need it all)
1 egg
Pinch of salt

1. Peel the potatoes, cut into quarter a place in a pan of boiling salted water.
2. Simmer until the potatoes are softened.
3. Mash until fine , or use a food processor or ricer
4. Add the egg salt and slowly add the flour.
5. You want a bread dough texture but depending on the wetness of potatoes you may not need all the flour.
6. Remove a golf ball size of dough, roll into a sausage shape on a lightly floured surface.
7. Cut into 1.5cm sized pieces with a fork roll it over.
8. Place well spaced on a tray or baking sheet before cooking

Cooking 

1. You can cook the gnocchi immediately by cooking it in boiling salted water until the gnocchi rise to the top . This usually takes just a few minutes
2. To freeze place on a baking tray and place in the freezer, once frozen they can be placed in a freezer bag and will keep for months and can be cooked as above straight from frozen.

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