Serves: 4
Prep time: one hour, thirty minutes for the gnocchi, 15 minutes for the sauce
For the béchamel sauce:
Ingredients
- 1 1/2 tablespoons unsalted butter
- 1 ½ tablespoons all purpose flour
- ½ teaspoon paprika
- ½ bay leaf
- 1/2 cup milk, heated
- ½ cup chicken stock, heated
- salt and pepper to taste
For the gnocchi:
Ingredients
- 1 pound potatoes
- 5 ounces all purpose flour
- 1 egg yolk
- 1 pinch of salt
For the sauce:
Ingredients
- 2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
- 7 ounces kabocha squash, diced
- 2 tablespoons red onion
- 6 ripe plum tomatoes, peeled and diced
- salt and pepper to taste
- 3 ounces bechamel sauce
- 6 leaves of fresh basil
- 1 tablespoon fresh chives
- 2 ounces parmesan cheese, grated
For the béchamel sauce:
Directions
- In a medium saucepan over medium heat, melt the butter.
- Stir in flour and cook until blended. Add paprika and bay leaf.
- Gradually add the milk, whisking constantly, and add the chicken stock.
- Turn heat to low and whisk until sauce is smooth and thickening, and season with salt and pepper.
- Simmer for several minutes, and discard the bayleaf.
For the gnocchi: - Boil potatoes, unpeeled, until tender.
- Cool for about 30 minutes or until lukewarm.
- Remove potato skins and put potatoes in a ricer one at a time, to crush them, and place on a large cutting board.
- Using your hands, mix the potatoes with the flour, salt and egg yolk, keeping the board dusted with extra flour so the dough doesn’t stick to the board.
- After dough is made, cut into several pieces, and roll each piece out on the flour-dusted board in the shape of a long snake (about 20 inches by one-inch thick).
- Cut dough in half-inch pieces from the roll, to make the individual gnocchi.
- Put gnocchi on a dusted tray and don’t allow them to touch each other. Put aside while preparing the sauce.
Kabocha and Tomato Sauce: - In a medium saucepan, mix together extra virgin olive oil, squash, and onion, and heat on medium heat until onion is transparent and the squash starts to become soft (3 or 4 minutes.)
- Add the tomatoes, adjust the salt and pepper, and sauté for five minutes until soft. Add 3 ounces of the béchamel sauce and the fresh basil.
- Bring salted water to a boil in a large pot. Drop gnocchi in and when they float to the surface (about 4 minutes), remove the gnocchi delicately, using a wire ladle, and put them into the sauce.
- Sprinkle with fresh chives and parmesan cheese.
