What’s for dinner? Butternut gnocchi with bacon and roast pepper sauce

Serves 2

You’ll need: For the gnocchi – ¼ cup roasted butternut; 1 egg; 2 cups bread/ all-purpose flour; 1 teaspoon salt; flour for preparing; 200g Eskort Streaky Bacon.

For the sauce – 2 charred red peppers; 1 cup chopped leeks; 1 clove garlic, chopped; 2 teaspoons fresh thyme, chopped; 1 tin tomato puree; 3 tablespoons red wine vinegar; ½ cup parmesan cheese, grated; ¼ cup basil leaves; 1 teaspoon coarse salt; 1 teaspoon black pepper; 3 tablespoons olive oil for cooking.

To serve – ¼ cup Parmesan shavings; fresh basil leaves; green micro herbs.

How to:

Add all of the gnocchi ingredients to a mixing bowl and mix until a soft dough forms.

Divide the dough into 4 equal pieces. Roll each piece into a long rope shape.

Cut the dough into 2 cm pieces. Squeeze the gnocchi pieces with a floured fork to make grooves on the gnocchi, (this will help the gnocchi to “transport” the sauce a bit better.

Keep the gnocchi aside while you prepare the rest of the meal.

The gnocchi is going to cook in the pepper sauce.

For the bacon, add the streaky bacon to a cold pan and add the pan to high heat.

Fry the bacon for 4 minutes per side until crispy.

For the sauce:

Preheat a frying pan over moderate heat. Add the olive oil to the pan.

Fry the leeks, garlic, and thyme for 3 min. Allow to cool down

Place all of the ingredients, except the bacon together with the fried leeks in a food processor.

Blend until smooth.

Add the sauce back to the saucepan and bring allow to a simmer for 5-7 min. Add the gnocchi and simmer for another 5 minutes.

To serve: 

Divide the gnocchi and sauce into two bowls.

Place the bacon on top of the gnocchi and garnish with parmesan and fresh basil.

* Recipe & image by Eskort.