June 15th, 2009

Gnocchetti Sardi al Pomodoro e Olive - Sardinian Mini Gnocchi with Tomato and Olive

The good thing about food in Italy is that every region really has their own specialty and character. Like now when I am just about bored with classic pasta-tomato sauce combination, the lunch today simply blew my mind. Marco’s brother who has just returned from attending wedding in Sardinia, gave us a bag of beautiful fresh Gnocchetti sardi, also called Ciciones, they are cute small Sardinian gnocchi that is made of semolina instead of potato in normal gnocchi. As the base ingredient is semolina flour, they are actually closer to pasta than gnocchi, but I don’t know why they are called gnocchi, next time I go to Sardinia, I will need to ask around about this :)

When I saw these gnocchetti, the only thing came to my mind was just a classic tomato sauce, may be because I am quite worried about a bag of mini san marzano tomatoes that have been lying in my fridge since last week and a bunch of basil that start to look abit sad, anyway, I did feel I want a red food today. As my sauce cooking, I found a bottle of olive taggiasche that I need to finish before this weekend that I will move out from the apartment, so I just drain and add them to the tomato sauce (munching some before, of course :)

The sauce turned out beautiful, with the sweetness of the mini san marzano playing with the taste of olive taggiasche and it blends perfectly with the gnocchetti and grated pecorino sardo (also from Marco’s brother)

The first time I made a black-ish photograph, I must say I quite like it. I managed to clean and dry properly the black melamine Fuksas plates I got from Alessi few weeks ago. Due to the material, these plates are so painful to clean and keep spotless…but I am happy with the photo results so I might use them again :) Stop talking about plates, here is he recipe:

Gncchetti Sardi al Pomodoro e Olive - Sardinian Mini Gnocchi with Tomato and Olive

Enough for 2 hungry people :)

Cooking soundtrack: Fleet Foxes’ EP - Sun Giant

200g Fresh gnocchetti sardi

300g Very ripe mini san marzano tomatoes (or cherry tomatoes), peeled and roughly chopped

Tiny bunch of fresh basil, leaves picked and thinly sliced

1 Shallot, peeled and thinly sliced

4 Tablespoons olive taggiasche

Extra virgin olive oil

Sea salt and pepper

Pecorino sardo, for grating

Heat up 2 liter of water in a sauce pan.

Add some glugs of olive oil in a frying pan over medium heat and add the shallot and cook till soft but not coloured. Add the chopped tomatoes and basil and simmer for 15 minutes. When the sauce is thicken, add the olive taggiasche, stir, let simmer for another 5 mintes then season with sea salt and pepper.

When the water boils, add 1 tbsp of coarse salt and add the gnocchetti all at once. Boil until al dente, remove from heat and drain.

Add the gnocchetti to the sauce, drizzle with olive oil, mix well and divide to plates. Grate some pecorino sardo on top and enjoy!

Buon apetito!

Filed under: food, paaaaaaaasta