And a happy new year!

Happy new year lovelies I hope everyone had an excellent holiday time, whatever they were doing.

I’m really excited to kick off my new Bex Basics series with something I have always enjoyed making, gnocchi! Whether a big weekend batch for a busy hotel or just a dinner at home for me and T. It does take a little bit of effort but the end product is totally worth it. Plus if like me you never grew out of Playdoh it’s great fun!

Without any further ado

Gnocchi

6 Medium Potatoes

Strong White Flour

1 Egg

1 Large Handful Grated Parmesan

Small pinch Baking Powder

Herbs (you can use whatever you fancy but for me oregano, rosemary, thyme or any combination thereof is an absolute winner)

Salt and Pepper to taste

First preheat your oven to 180 and bake the potatoes in their jackets for around 1 hour.

When the potatoes are fully cooked through carefully cut them in half. Please don’t burn yourself but be aware that the potatoes are easier to work with when they’re still warm.

Use a spoon and scoop out the flesh from the potatoes. Put into a large bowl and mash thoroughly.

Leave the mashed potatoes to cool down a bit then add in the egg, parmesan, herbs and baking powder. Season well with salt and pepper.

Next add in your flour. How much you need will depend on how the potatoes are. I usually end up using just over half the amount of flour to potatoes. We’re looking for a smooth dough that can be easily rolled out into sausages on a floured surface.

My best advice is to mix with your hands. You’ll soon get a feel for how the dough should be.

Pop your biggest saucepan full of generously salted water on to boil.

Now comes the fun part. Roll out your dough into little sausages. Pinch the roll gently between thumb and forefinger then cut through the roll with a good sharp knife. Then just pinch and cut. Pinch and cut until you have a surface full of gorgeous little pillows.

By the time you finish rolling the dough your saucepan should be boiling. Have a large bowl of ice water on standby.

And it’s time to start cooking. First get YouTube or Spotify up and put on the popular sea shanty What Shall We Do With the Drunken Sailor.

Wait OK what?

Ah got you, OK confession time!

You don’t actually have to do this. It’s just a silly tradition I have…

Seriously though there is a little bit of method to my madness. We now need to blanch our gnocchi. Using a slotted spoon, add a few gnocchi into the boiling water. When they are ready they’ll rise and float on the top of the pan. Hooray and up she rises! Early in the morning!

As soon as the gnocchi float scoop them out of the boiling water and straight into the ice water.

Drain them well.

At this point you can coat them in a little olive oil and store in the fridge or freezer until needed.

When you need some gnocchi just get a non stick frying pan good and hot (defrost the gnocchi before using if they’re in the freezer) and add in some oil.

Fry the gnocchi until good and golden brown.

Serve with lamb chops and pesto or with your favourite pasta sauce.

You should probably have switched music from sea shanties to Dean Martin at this point.

Enjoy!