BUTTERNUT SQUASH GNOCCHI IN HERBY BROWN BUTTER

Hello,

There are a lot of ways to eat butternut squash, but this has to be my favourite. Well, this and using butternut squash as a substitute for pumpkin pie. Like a brown sugar, bourbon squash pie? It’s so good.

Okay, so there’s soup, which is fine, or having it diced in a salad or quinoa bowl, but gnocchi? Oh my gosh. This is so delicious, and it’s easier than regular gnocchi! Hopefully this will open the doors for more gnocchi making this autumn. And it’s orange, so it’s cute and festive looking too. And 1 butternut squash makes a lot of gnocchi dough, so make it for a big dinner or just cook half the butternut squash.

Also, if you have any questions or make it yourself, tag me or DM me on Insta ! @sosandrapark

Can’t wait to hear from you, and happy cooking :]

HERBY BUTTER

INGREDIENTS:

• Herbs (Rosemary, Thyme)

• Butter (1 block, here in Scotland that means 250 grams)

• Salt, pinch

INSTRUCTIONS

So let’s start with that herb butter, who is the star of the show. Grab a handful of whatever herbs you have around. I leave it whole instead of chopping it up so it’s easier to fish out later, but you can totally give it up a mince if you want to. I had fresh rosemary and thyme. (Rosemary and thyme are very hearty herbs who keep their shape well. Keep in mind that some herbs will wilt in the heat, like basil or cilantro. You can totally still use them, but I would discard them after the infusion.) Dried herbs would probably work well too. I also left out the garlic because I wanted to add it in later, but add whatever you want. And a block of butter. Throw the butter and herbs together into a cold sauce pan and let it come to a bare simmer for 20 minutes. Stirring. You don’t want it to brown, just slowly heat the entire time on low low. Add a pinch of salt, cus the key to flavour is building it little by little all along the way.

That’s it. Pour it into a jar and let it cool completely before putting into the fridge. Mine’s been in there for a few months now, and we take out a scoop as needed. I usually use it for pasta, but I’ve also put it on popcorn and chicken. Now you have a flavour explosion that you can keep in the fridge.

BUTTERNUT SQUASH GNOCCHI

INGREDIENTS

• 1 Butternut squash (mine was 800 grams)

• Equivalent amount of strong flour (800 grams of flour)

• 4 eggs (2 whole + 2 Yolk)

• 15 grams of salt

• Tool : Bench scraper

INSTRUCTIONS

Preheat the oven to Max. The hardest part of cooking butternut squash is cutting it the actual butternut squash. It takes a bit of elbow grease and a sharp knife. Don’t worry about peeling, just give it a wash if there’s dirt on it and then dry it off. Some people like to cut it lengthwise and put 2 large pieces face-down, I cut it into 4 by cutting into where the neck meets the butt. And then lengthwise for each piece. And de-seeding it before putting into the oven will save you de-seeding it later. Put if facedown on a piece of parchment and baking tray. Put it into a hot hot oven. Set the timer for 30 minutes.

• While you’re waiting for the squash, slice up some garlic if you want to add it into your brown butter.

• Grate some Parmesan now so you can add it into the final dish later.

When you take it out, the peel will be blistery and papery. Perfect. And the flesh of the squash might have formed a skin. No worries. Let it cool and then just cut away the peel and any rough skin. My butternut squash was medium sized and weighed in at about 800 grams cooked, so I added an equal amount of strong Canadian flour. Obviously, the amount of flour will depend on the amount of butternut squash you have. I added 15 grams of salt and 4 eggs (2 whole + 2 yolk). Mix it all together by hand until it forms a dough.

Rolling out the dough and making little bite sized gnocchi is the most labour-intensive part of the whole thing. The bench scraper is really handy here. I cut my dough into 4 pieces so it’s more manageable and work with 1 piece at a time, putting the rest into a bowl and covering it with plastic wrap. Now take the quarter piece of dough and cut that into 8 pieces. Now take that 1/8 of a dough and roll it out so it looks like a long log, about the thickness of your finger. (If that 1/8 piece is too big for you to work with, just cut it in half) Now cut the log into 1 inch pieces. You’re going to do that for all the dough. Roll out into a long finger roll and cut into 1 inch pieces. If the dough is very sticky, just add a little bit of flour to the surface. Once you have the gnocchi pieces cut, toss them in flour.

Now you get to make them look like gnocchi, by taking each little inch of dough and rolling it alongside the back of a fork. I hold the fork in my left hand so the tongs are on the surface, like I’m holding down a steak. And then with my right thumb, I roll the the gnocchi piece down the fork. The flour should keep it from sticking to the fork. This is also fun to do with a few people. That will give it these ridges where the brown butter and herby cheese pieces can get lost in.

Once the gnocchi is all rolled, cut, and forked, get that pasta water boiling and a pan heating up for your brown butter sauce cus things will move very quickly from here.

Boil that pasta water for the gnocchi. Once the salted water is boiling, add the gnocchi to the water.

Simultaneously, remember that herby butter? Time to take it out now! Get a pan heating on medium and add a spoonful of herby butter and the garlic and let it start to get all bubbly and brown.

The gnocchi will be done in about 60 seconds. You’ll know because it will start to float to the top in no time.

Use a slotted spoon to pull it out and throw into the pan with the herby brown butter. Toss the gnocchi around. This will also only take about 60 seconds. Throw most of the pre-grated parm in. Toss until the cheese kinda melts into the gnocchi.

That’s it! Plate, add a pinch of fresh parm, and crack some black pepper over it. And enjoy.