Monday, August 27, 2018

Spinach and Ricotta “Gnocchi Verdi” with Tomato and Parmesan Cream

LOW CARB DIET CONTINUES
We have had a look at recipes which we have published previously, to see if there are any that are fairly low in carbohydrates. If you are missing pasta, this is a very good substitution because it looks and tastes like a pasta, but is mainly vegetable and cheese. This recipe contains 1 tablespoon of flour, which equals 5.4gm of carbohydrate. There are 16gm of carbs in the tinned tomatoes, so 4gm per serving. It feeds four people as a starter, so you will get a quarter of that in each serving, not a heavy load. We would encourage you to use the very best quality and freshest ricotta cheese you can find, it so improves the recipe. And please do use real baby spinach, not Swiss chard. Chard works, but does not give such light and fluffy gnocchi. The trick as usual, is to handle the gnocchi as little as possible. This is a starter for 4 or a main course for 2 or 3
500gm Spinach – 200gm fresh ricotta – grating of nutmeg – salt and pepper – 1 egg - 45gm grated Parmesan – 1 T flour
Wash the spinach and cook in salted water till wilted. Drain well & squeeze till absolutely dry, then place in a food processor with the ricotta, seasoning and nutmeg; blend quickly and gently. Softly mix in egg, parmesan and flour. Chill then, using two teaspoons, shape into gnocchi quenelles. Use them immediately or cover with cling film and use within a couple of hours. Keeping them longer will dry them out
Tomato Sauce: 800g tinned tomatoes – Salt and pepper – 2 cloves garlic, chopped – 100ml cream
Put all into a pan, bring to the boil and reduce for 10 minutes, then add the cream and blitz with your wand blender. Taste and season. If you must and your tomatoes are not ripe, soften the acidity with a little sugar
Parmesan Cream: 250ml cream – 150ml finely grated parmesan. Mix together in a jug.
Boil a pot of well salted water, and when it is simmering nicely, gently drop the gnocchi into the water. Remove it as soon as it comes to the surface and drain
Take small individual serving dishes; ladle 2–3 T of tomato sauce into each. Put in 3 to 5 (depends how large you made them!) gnocchi in each, pour over the same amount of parmesan cream. Grate extra parmesan on top. Put into a preheated 180ºC oven for about 10 minutes until bubbling and the cheese starts to colour. You can cook these in one large casserole dish. You will need to increase the timing, but wait until the cheese is bubbling and starting to colour. Serve and eat at once

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