Ingredients
Serves 4
2 tablespoons olive oil
8 slices hot spicy pancetta
400g cup mushrooms, sliced
1 cup beef stock
¾ cup thickened cream
¼ cup fresh flat-leaf parsley
Block of Parmigiano Reggiano, grated.
625g fresh potato gnocchi
Method
Preheat oven 200°C. Heat a non-stick frying pan over high heat Add the oil. (I always like to heat the pan then add the oil, that way the pan is nice and hot and there's no risk of burning the olive oil.)
Add pancetta and cook for 2-3 minutes until light golden If you start with hot and spicy pancetta you don?t need to add onion, garlic or chilli for flavour; its all in the pancetta which reduces ingredients you need to buy and prepare.
Add mushrooms and cook for 5 minutes or until tender. I used a combination of cup and Swiss brown mushrooms.
Reduce heat to medium, add the stock and cream and bring to boil. Boil gently for 10 minutes, or until sauce thickens slightly.
Meanwhile, cook gnocchi in a saucepan of boiling, salted water for 3 minutes or until partially cooked. Drain and spoon into a 6-cup capacity, 5cm deep, 16cm x 23cm baking dish. Spoon over the mushroom sauce and parsley. Season with salt and pepper and stir gently to coat gnocchi.
Sprinkle over three-quarters of the parmesan.
Heres the beauty of this dish - you can eat it straight away or you can pop into the oven to thicken up and bake. Bake for 10-12 minutes until piping hot. Sprinkle over remaining parmesan and serve.
Notes
I like using a pasta insert in the pot. It restricts the water tumbling too fast so filled pasta like tortellini, ravioli or delicate pasta like gnocchi won't fall apart. Don't use with other pasta shapes.
Gnocchi becomes very gluggy if over cooked, cook for half the recommended time on the packet, it should be just a little undercooked as the cooking process is completed when baking.
You can make this dish in advance up until the baking point and keep it in the fridge until ready to use. When you come home from work you can pop into a hot oven and just bake it 10-15 minutes!
Cookbook
Mushrooms: The Great All-Rounder
Features a brand-new collection of over 110 beautifully photographed, recipes and cooking tips.
Can be ordered from: www.cookingwithmushrooms.com
Cost: $28.00 includes postage and handling.