Gnocchi Bake.

 

Gnocchi Bake is delicious. It is not the most glamorous looking meal; very hearty, rustic and homemade but, it tastes amazing. I made it for the first time a couple of months ago and now I make it all the time. The flavour is gorgeous; it's rich and creamy and I adore the crispy hazlenut topping. This is now one of my favourite dishes and it goes lovely with some yummy garlic bread. The other day I purchased some garlic and mozzarella pizza express garlic breads as a little treat as they are gorgeous but, they are quite expensive. Still, I'd say they are very much worth it though. If you have never tried gnocchi I would deffinately recommend giving it a go, it is lovely and you can just use it in any dish where you would normally use pasta. I love pasta bake so, I thought why not make a gnocchi bake and I am very glad I did. As a vegetarian there is literally nothing better than roast vegetables; there is always so much colour and flavour and my meat eating family love them too which is great and they make a gorgeous, perfect filling for this dish. 

 

Recipe

 

Roast Vegetables

2 Red onions

1 Sweet Potato

1 Red Pepper

1 Yellow Pepper

1 Courgette

1 Carrot

1 Parsnip

8 Asparagus Spears

2 tbsp. olive oil

Tomato Sauce

Tin of chopped tomatoes

Tin of tomato soup

Handful of basil leaves

Cheese Sauce

25g Butter

25g Plain Flour

300ml Semi-skimmed milk

100g Blue Cheese

100g Cheddar, grated

Topping

1 Slice of wholemeal bread (breadcrumbs)

20g Hazlenuts, chopped finely

10g-20g Grated Cheddar

 

400g Gnocchi

 



Method

First of all peel and chop all of the vegetables and keep them quite chunky. Roast them in a casserole dish, coated with about 2 tbsp. worth of olive oil at 200C for about 40 minutes until the vegetables are soft and bronzed. 

Whilst, the vegetables are roasting prepare the cheese sauce. Melt the butter in a small saucepan and add in the flour. Mix over the heat for about a minute. Slowly pour in the warm milk a tiny bit at a time until smooth. Return to the heat, bringing to the boil, stirring constantly to avoid lumps until the sauce is thick, smooth and glossy and coats the back of a wooden spoon. Add the grated cheddar and crumbled blue cheese and stir until melted and combined.

Next prepare the tomato sauce. Heat the tin of chopped tomatoes and tin of tomato soup in a saucepan and add in some torn up fresh basil leaves. Pour the tomato sauce over the roast vegetables in the casserole dish but, remember to drain off any oil from the vegetables first if there is lots of excess. If there isn't too much I would just leave it as I personally think it adds a nice flavour.

Tip the gnocchi into the casserole dish and ensure that it is covered by the tomato sauce. Pour over the blue cheese sauce. Finally, blitz 1 round of wholemeal bread in a food processor to prepare fresh breadcrumbs and then scatter them over the top of the gnocchi along with the finely chopped hazlenuts and then sprinkle with the grated cheddar. Bake in the oven at 200C for at least 30-35 minutes and then serve with some delicious garlic bread. Gorgeous! (if the cheese starts to brown, cover with some tin foil to ensure the topping doesn't burn.)

Waalaaa!

Thankyou for reading!

Love Courts x