Pink pillows (beetroot gnocchi)

Ingredients

500g dutch cream (or similar) potatoes
1 beetroot
200g plain flour
1/2 cup parmesan cheese, finely grated
1 egg, lightly beaten
30g butter, melted
2 tbsp finely chopped basil
Parmesan, grated, to serve

Method

Wash the potatoes well and place in a large pot of cold water. Cook (whole and unpeeled) until tender (about 30 minutes depending on the size of the potatoes). Wrap the beetroot in foil and cook in a moderate oven for about the same time, again until tender.

Drain the potatoes and once they have cooled a little, slip off their skins and mash well or preferably put them through a potato ricer. Puree the beetroot until smooth. Combine the potatoes, beetroot, cheese, flour and egg and gently mix together until you have a soft dough.

Divide this into four pieces. Roll out one of these pieces into a long thin snake about 2cm thick. Bring a big pot of water to the boil. Cut the gnocchi snake into small pieces and cook in batches for a minute or until they rise to the surface.

Serve immediately with a little bit of melted butter and lots of fresh parmesan.

Notes

Freeze extra gnocchi by placing the unboiled pieces on a baking tray and freezing in one layer then transferring to little freezer bags. These can be cooked straight from frozen and are even great to drop into soups for extra colour, flavour and bulk.
You could place the cooked gnocchi in a shallow dish, cover with a little bit of cream and then parmesan before baking until golden on top.
If your kids like helping in the kitchen then please try this; make the gnocchi right up to the rolling and cutting stage and then give them each a ball to roll and cut themselves. It’s like playing with edible play dough and as long as you don’t add too much flour to the work surface, won’t do the end result too much harm!

This recipe was created by Sophie Hansen from Local is Lovely. You can follow Sophie on Facebook, Twitter or Pinterest.