Chestnut Gnocchi

Recipe from Soglio, Bregalia, Switzerland

Ingredients

250 g plain white flour,
200 g chestnut flour,

1 kg waxy potatoes, peeled,
3 eggs,

Butter,

Salt,

Freshly ground black pepper,

Fresh cream for the sauce,

A little bit of chestnut puree,

Cooked fresh or dried chestnuts if available,

Rosemary and juniper berries.

Steam the potatoes for about 15 minutes until cooked through. While hot, pass each potato through a potato ricer so that it falls evenly over the flour on the bench. Sprinkle the potato with salt.

Melt 50 g of butter and drizzle it evenly over the potato. Using a pastry scraper, work the flour into the potato little by little until you have firm dough. Knead the dough gently for 5 - 6 minutes (the timing is very important). Divide the dough into quarters and roll each piece to make a long, thin sausage about 1 cm in diameter. Cut each sausage into 2.5cm lengths. Put a buttered serving dish into an oven set at about 150C.

A large, heavy based, 6 cm deep baking tray is perfect for poaching gnocchi. Fill the tray with water, then salt it and bring it to a boil. When the water is boiling, raise the heat and quickly slip in all the gnocchi at once (if the tray is large enough to take the gnocchi in a single layer), then reduce the heat so the water isn't too turbulent. Allow the gnocchi to cook for 1 minute after they have risen to the surface, then skim them out and put them into the warm serving dish and season.

Cook the rosemary and juniper berries in some butter and add the cream and chestnut puree. At the end add the cooked fresh or dried chestnuts if desired. Serves 8.