Pizza crust gnocchi with sweet cherry tomato sauce
Sunday night, almost without fail, is pizza night in our house. And Tuesday or Wednesday night is fast becoming gnocchi night! We can’t promise that these flavoursome, pleasing dumplings are the speediest recipe around, but they are certainly far less of a faff than you might imagine and more foolproof. Using out and out leftovers to recreate an entirely different meal the next day is super satisfying - it feels good and tastes good too.
In this recipe we’ve flavoured the gnocchi with wild garlic and parsley (thanks to an impromptu forage in Battersea Park last weekend!) but they can work with many different flavour twists… parmesan & black pepper? porcini powder & a drop of truffle oil? We’ll let you know future experiments on @joeyandkatycook and would love to hear yours.
These are firmer and bouncier than traditional gnocchi, thanks to the two eggs we use to bind the dough. We prefer the slightly higher protein count, love the firmer texture, and definitely don’t hate the fact that they are much more robust during cooking…! Like we said, pretty foolproof.
Be sure to scrape any tomato sauce off the crusts or leftover pizza bases, and leave these out in a bowl and out on the counter overnight to dry out; this will help them blitz to a much finer crumb in your blender the next day.
Prep time: 15 minutes (+ leave crusts out overnight)
Cooking time: 15 minutes
This recipe serves 2 people
Ingredients :
For the gnocchi:
150g dried pizza crusts
2 handfuls of fresh herbs - any combo of wild garlic, basil and parsley
½ tsp sea salt
2 eggs
4 tbsp water
For the sauce:
4 tbsp olive oil
16 cherry tomatoes
2 cloves garlic
½ red chilli
¼ tsp flakey sea salt
¼ tsp dried oregano
⅛ tsp black pepper
½ tsp sugar
4-12 tbsp hot water
Method:
Scrape any tomato sauce off the crusts or leftover pizza bases, and leave these out in a bowl on the counter overnight; transfer your hard pizza crusts and herbs into a blender and whizz on a high power until you have very fine, and slightly green, breadcrumbs - the finer the better.
Crack in 2 eggs, add ½ tsp sea salt and 4 tbsp water. Whizz again for 1 minute to combine. Tip your dough into a mixing bowl and knead this into a ball. The dough should be tight and not too tacky.
Break the dough into 4 smaller balls, then roll each one out into long cylinders with the circumference of a pound coin. Slice into inch long gnocchi. Tip - dip the tip of your knife into water between slicing for a neater finish.
Let your gnocchi sit uncovered while you get going with the sauce, and bring a large pot of salted water to the boil.
Quarter the cherry tomatoes, peel and finely slice the garlic, and finely chop the red chilli. Heat 4 tablespoons of olive oil in a large non-stick frying pan over a low heat, and add the tomatoes, garlic and chilli. Stir-fry for 4 minutes.
When your gnocchi water is gently simmering, tip in the gnocchi and set a timer for 4 minutes. Don’t let this pan come to a ‘rolling boil’ as this will be too aggressive and may break apart your gnocchi.
Now add the salt, oregano, pepper, sugar and hot water (from your gnocchi pan) to the tomatoes and allow this to continue simmering and frying while your gnocchi cooks. The tomatoes will start to collapse and sweeten. If the pan looks too dry at any point add a few more tablespoons of water and turn the heat as low as possible.
After 4-5 minutes the gnocchi is cooked and should float to the top. Use a slotted spoon to transfer these into your pan of sweet cherry tomato sauce.
Cook for 2 minutes and stir and shimmy the pan well to ensure everything is well coated and the flavours have all mingled. Add a few tablespoons of water to keep the sauce juicy and glossy if needs be.
Tip into warmed bowls and devour with a green salad and a generous grating of parmesan on top.
For more zero waste recipes check out our Green odds & ends pasta here