Old favourites

Spaghetti meatballs

With the rain keeping us in indoors we have been cooking toddler friendly food more often as it gives us something to do during the day! Oscar loves to help cut and mix but his favourite job is taste tester. This week we made the old favourite 'Spaghetti Meatballs' and some home made pizza using pita bread.

I've provided photos of the pizza making but have not listed a recipe as pizza is really a choose your own adventure. I love very plain pizzas but we added some yellow capsicum, mushrooms, ham, cheese and fresh tomato. Oscar had lots of fun making his pizza and the way he made it is the way we left it.

As for spaghetti meatballs, I make the meatballs different every time as it depends on what I have in the fridge. Below is the recipe I used for this time. It made about 35 small meatballs which I freeze.

Here's what you need:
400-500g beef mince (or chicken)
1 carrot grated
1/2 grated onion
1 tablespoon chopped basil
1/2 cup frozen corn, thawed
1 beaten egg
1/2 cup breadcrumbs (or flour if too runny)
*other times I have added: grated zucchini, mashed potato, crushed garlic, mashed broccoli

All ready to go

Here's what you do:
If baking meatballs, preheat your oven to 200C and grease an oven tray with a little olive oil. You will need to bake the meatballs for about 20 minutes. I pan fried mine in some olive oil over a hot plate over medium heat.

This recipe is great because almost all ingredients just need to be grated into a bowl. Mix all ingredients together with your hands and add more flour or breadcrumbs if too runny. Scoop teaspoon sized portions of the mix and roll into small balls. Repeat till all mixture is used. Once cooked, you can freeze what you don't eat but wait till they cool down first. I freeze them in batches of 4.

I cooked 3/4 packet of spaghetti which gave us 2 adult, 1 toddler & 2 lunch portions. To make the tomato sauce I lightly fried the remaining 1/2 of the onion used in the meatballs, added 2 cloves of crushed garlic, a tablespoon of chopped basil, a 700g bottle of Passata and a can of chopped tomatoes. I also had a heaped teaspoon of sugar and a little bit of worcestershire sauce. When the sauce is ready mix the pasta and meatballs all together.

Pizza Making 

Our pizza toppings

Fun pizza making

Spinach & Mushroom Lasagna

last night's dinner

I decided to make a lasagna last minute and decided to use mince as well as spinach and mushrooms. My son ate it up so quickly and I liked it too but I think next time I will either make a traditional meat lasagna or a spinach, mushroom and ricotta one. Also, I ran out of sauce for the top layer so had to use tomato paste mixed with water which made it taste a bit too tomatoey. I always make too little sauce. Anyway, below is the recipe with the ingredients adjusted. It made 5 adult serves and 7 toddler serves which are perfect for freezing.

Here's what you need:

Always make a lot of sauce

700g minced beef

2 jars Passata tomato sauce 

1 brown onion diced finely

1 garlic clove crushed

1 punnet button mushrooms washed & sliced

2 cups spinach, blanched & sliced finely

1 tbspn sugar

1 tbspn Worcestershire 

olive oil

1 box dry lasagna sheets

Mozzarella & cheese grated - about 4-5 cups

2 bay leaves

Here's what you do:

Preheat oven to 180C. Heat the oil in a large saucepan and cook onion and garlic together until soft, about 3 mins. Add the mince and cook until brown. Add the mushrooms and stir. Pour in the 2 bottles of tomato and sauce and add some water to each bottle. Shake well and then add the water to the pan also. Add the sugar, Worcestershire sauce and bay leaves and stir well. Reduce the stove heat and cover pan with lid. Leave to cook for about 10-15mins, stir occasionally. Add the spinach and stir through.

When the sauce is ready remove from heat and scoop out the bay leaves. Coat the base of a deep oven dish with a layer of sauce which will stop the lasagna sheets from sticking. cover with a layer of dry lasagna sheets. Use a large kitchen spoon and cover sheets with sauce. make sure to cover the sheets well, especially the corners as these will dry out. Sprinkle grated cheese over the sauce generously and if you have any left over spinach you can add now too. Cover with another layer of lasagna sheets and repeat the sauce/cheese process. I managed to get 4 layers.

Cover the top layer with the remaining sauce and top generously with cheese. Cover the oven dish with foil and place in the oven for 25 minutes. When ready, remove the foil and cook for a further 10 minutes. Enjoy!

Roasted Pumpkin Sauce with Fettuccine

Pumpkin sauce pasta

This is one of my all time favourite pasta sauces and dinners. So easy and tasty. The best part about it is that you can add to the sauce. Next time I might add some fried bacon and pine nuts, even pesto. You can even use the sauce to stuff portobello mushrooms. The recipe was adapted from the Family Circle Quick Pasta Cookbook and originally says to use pappardelle pasta but I couldn't find any so used regular fettucine. The recipe also says to use butternut pumpkin but as I live in Thailand it was a lot cheaper for me to use chinese pumpkin and it still tasted great. I cooked the whole packet of pasta and it served 2 adults and 3 toddler serves.

Bake for 30mins

Here's what you need:
1 packet of pasta (papperdelle recommended)
1.4kg pumpkin, deseeded, cut in 2cm chunks
4 garlic cloves, crushed
100ml olive oil
3 tablespoons thyme leaves
salt to season
3/4 cup hot stock (vegetable or chicken)
2 tablespoons cream
Parmesan, grated to season at end

Here's what you do:
Preheat your oven to 200C and place water in a pan for the pasta and bring to the boil. Cut your pumpkin into 2cm chunks with the skin and seeds removed. Place in a baking tray and coat with the crushed garlic, thyme leaves and 60ml of the olive oil. Season with salt and place in the oven for 30mins. Place the pasta in the salted, boiling water and cook for about 12mins. When cooked, drain and pour the remaining 40ml of olive oil through the pasta. Keep the pasta warm.

Take the pumpkin out of the oven and place all contents of the baking tray in a Magimix or other food processor. Add the hot stock and cream and mix together. Pour the sauce over the pasta and stir through. That's it! Serve topped with parmesan cheese and thyme leaves if you want. Enjoy!

Chicken Parmigiana & Jamie Oliver Potatoes/Carrots

Nothing fancy but tasty just the same

I haven't cooked dinner for nearly a week. Finishing off a university assignment and enjoying Mother's Day weekend seemed to zap all my time and energy. Lucky I have a stock of meals for Oscar in the freezer and for us, well take away pizza, cheese on toast, and whatever we can eat standing at the fridge door has been our dinner! So tonight I am making amends. Nothing fancy, probably not blog-worthy but here it is anyway.

I love Jamie Oliver's cookbooks and enjoy watching his 30 minute meal shows. On the weekend (while eating cheese & crackers for dinner) I decided to give his herb 'roasted' potatoes and glazed carrots a try. We're having them with a chicken parmigiana and whatever vegetables are in the fridge to steam, cauliflower and broccoli.

Prepare it earlier to save time

Here's what you need - Chicken Parmigiana
chicken breast (I needed 3)
flour to coat chicken (about 1/2 cup)
1 lightly beaten egg
1 cup flour
1/2 cup grated parmesan
1 tbspn chopped parsley (if you like)
1 bottle pasta sauce or whole tomatoes in can
grated mozzarella cheese
olive oil

Vegetables cooking away

Here's what you need - Potatoes & Carrots
500g potatoes (I used 2 large brushed potatoes)
1 lemon (use a potato peeler to shave off the zest)
4 sprigs of fresh thyme & rosemary
1 bulb of garlic, unpeeled
1 large carrot, wash, peeled, cut into stalks
small knob of butter
2-3 bay leaves
2 tspn sugar

Chicken in the oven

Here's what you do - Chicken
Heat the oven to 180C. Press down the chicken breast with your hands to flatten it out. Combine the parmesan and breadcrumbs with the parsley in a bowl. Coat the chicken in flour, dip and coat in egg and then cover with the cheesy breadcrumbs. For my son's chicken I cut the breast in half horizontally so it is not as thick. Heat the olive oil in a fry pan and lightly fry each side of the chicken until it is golden. Drain on kitchen paper. (I prepared the chicken during the day and kept it in the fridge to save time).

When you're ready to cook the chicken, place the cooked chicken on a baking try lined with foil. Pour over your pasta sauce generously and top with grated mozzarella. I probably put too much cheese put better too much than too little in my opinion. Bake in the oven for about 10-15mins.

Vegetables
During the day when I prepared the chicken I also steamed some cauliflower and broccoli and kept it in the fridge. It's just one less thing to think about at dinner time and I reheated them when I was ready to serve. I followed Jamie's recipe and instructions to the letter and the results were pretty good.

Boil the kettle and heat a fry pan on high. Put the cut potatoes in the pan and cover with boiling water from the kettle. I didn't cover mine with a lid. Cook on high for about 10mins or until the potato breaks apart with a knife easily.

Boil the kettle again and put the carrots in a sauce pan. Pour the boiling water over, add a few twigs of thyme, sugar, pinch of salt, bay leaves and a lug of olive oil. Leave cooking on high.

Seasonings

Once the potatoes are ready, drain them, return the pan to the heat and warm up some olive oil. Let the potatoes steam in colander for a few minutes. Add the potatoes to the olive oil and lay them out flat. Add your unpeeled bulb of garlic a clove at a time and grate in your lemon zest. Add a knob of butter and toss on high heat for a few minutes. Turn the heat low and continue tossing for a few minutes more. Tear in some rosemary and toss a few more times. They should go golden in colour.

Drain the carrots then pour a little olive oil and sprinkle some salt over them. Take the chicken out of the oven and serve up with all the vegetables. I needed to add a bit of salt to my dinner. Enjoy!

Ricotta & Spinach Pasta Bake

I think one of the reasons I find the slow cooker so boring is that I like to use my hands when cooking. This pasta bake is perfect because you get to mix the cheese and spinach and fill the pasta shells. If my son wasn't sleeping I would have let him have a go at stuffing the shells. The best part about him being asleep is that I can get dinner ready quickly, ahead of time, and without him clinging to my leg asking for some "cheeeeessse".

This recipe comes from the Women's Weekly Healthy Babies Cookbook. I've made it before and Oscar (and us) loved it. He normally has 4-5 pasta shells for dinner. The original recipe says to use 32 pasta shells but, being a big eater, I always use more and then always have too much left over and the pasta ends up being squashed all on top of each other. I swear next time I will only use 32 shells, but that's what I said last time!

Preparations

Here's what you need:
32 large pasta shells
500g spinach, trimmed
600g low-fat ricotta cheese
2 tbspn finely chopped flat parsley
700g tomato pasta sauce (I use Passatta as it's exactly 700g per bottle)
1/2 cup or 125 ml chicken* stock (I used home made stock today from the freezer)
2 tbspn finely grated parmesan cheese (or you could try with other type)
*use vegetable stock to make recipe vegetarian

Here's what you do:
Preheat the oven to 180C. Bring a large saucepan of salted water to boiling point and then add your pasta shells. Cook for 3 minutes only as you want them to stay firm, When done, drain and let them cool down. Chop the parsley and boil or steam the spinach, drain and squeeze out the excess water.

Ready to be covered with foil

In a bowl, add the ricotta, spinach and parsley and using your hands mix all together. In an oven proof dish, pour the tomato sauce and chicken stock and mix together with a spoon. Use your hands to stuff each pasta shell with the ricotta mix. Fill each shell quite full. Place the shell in the dish and repeat. When done sprinkle the top with parmesan cheese and cover the dish with foil.

Bake in the oven for 50 minutes and then remove the foil and bake for another 10 minutes. Leave it to cool for a bit before serving and you can scoop up some of the sauce to pour over the shells. Enjoy!

Sweet Potato & Chicken Stew - Slow Cooker

Sweet Potato & Chicken Stew

Ok, last year I bought my husband a slow cooker for Father's Day. Some might say that is a lame present but I also bought him some of those waterproof travel bags you can take kayaking etc so I think it balanced out. Since the date of purchase however we have used the slow cooker a grand total of... once, and I can't even remember what we made.

The reason for this is because I am a slow cooker skeptic. I just don't understand how it all works and find it hard to believe that in 7 hours all those raw ingredients will produce a beautiful stew. It also doesn't help that I look through the glass lid every 20 minutes or so and see that nothing has happened.

I find it a bit boring BUT can see the enormous benefits. So today I decided to take out the slow cooker and give a new recipe a try. Nothing too fancy but delicious just the same and it allowed me to indulge my sweet potato/kumara obsession. The recipe below would serve 4.


Here's what you need:
2 medium orange sweet potatoes, peeled & cut into chunks
2 brushed potatoes, peeled & cut into quarters

everything in

2 medium carrots, peeled & cut in chunks
6 chicken drumsticks, skin removed (or as many as you need)
2 garlic cloves, crushed
1 cup chicken stock (I used store bought because I was lazy)
1 can of whole tomatoes
2 tbspn flour
2 tbspn fresh thyme
salt to your liking (I didn't salt mine but should have)

7 hours to go

Here's what you do:
Put everything in the slow cooker and give it a quick stir. Put the lid on and set the time for 7 1/2 hours and cook on low. If you want it faster set cook temperature to high for 5 hours. How easy is that!

We made some rice in the rice cooker to serve it with when time was up. I shredded the chicken from the bone (it just fell off), scooped up the vegetables and poured some of the stew over it all. My son ate it up as well and it was pretty tasty. Enjoy!

3 Recipe Treat - what to do with the bits & pieces!

I don't know if your fridge is anything like my fridge but today I literally had 3 mushrooms, a carrot, left over sweet corn and some zucchinis. I also had a toddler clinging to my left leg who seems to have discovered his inner whining voice and was very busy 'telling' me he was hungry. So I quickly slapped some cheese on bread, gave Oscar his cheese sandwich and within 20 minutes had whipped up 3 toddler friendly meals, used up all those annoying half-eaten ingredients and stocked my freezer! Then when Oscar had his nap, I ate my pasta salad that I made yesterday and read my book for 20 mins guilt-free, a good day so far!

Recipe #1: Vegetable Pancakes

Vegetable Pancake stack - yum!

The recipe below makes about 13 pancakes but I ate 3 of them (!!) so was able to freeze 10. I don't include sugar in my pancake recipe as I would rather not cook with it. I used wholewheat flour for the first time today too.

Here's what you need:
any leftover vegetables hiding in your fridge! I used:
half a grated zucchini/courgette
half a large grated carrot
1/2 cup of sweet corn
1 egg
1 cup wholewheat flour
1 cup milk
little bit of baking soda

Here's what you do:
Mix the flour, milk, egg, baking soda together with a wooden spoon. Originally I used only 3/4 milk but it was quite dry so I added an extra 1/4 milk. Add all the vegetables and mix through. Heat a little olive oil in a frypan on medium heat and then using a normal spoon to scoop the batter out and place in the pan. I cooked 5 at a time. Turn after 1 minute or so, or until golden brown on each side and place on sorbent towel to cool. Repeat until all cooked. You could spread some cream cheese on top to serve if you find them a little dry. When cooled, wrap in foil and freeze. Enjoy!

Yum!

Recipe #2: Vegetable Frittata
Oscar is egg crazy, he likes them anyway they can be made which makes life easy on a Sunday morning when I want a no-fuss breakfast. I just scramble or boil an egg and he is happy. I love frittata though and the best part is if your child is fussy you can hide loads of vegetables in them which I did today. This recipe made 3 frittatas. They are perfect for freezing and for lunch or dinner, kids or adults!



Here's what you need:

any leftover vegetables hiding in your fridge! Chopped capsicum/peppers work well. I used:

half a grated zucchini/courgette

half a large grated carrot

1/2 cup of sweet corn

3 mushrooms sliced

3 eggs, whisked

grated cheese, I used Montgomery Jack as that's what was in the fridge.

Here's what you do:

Grease 3 ramekin dishes (ceramic are best) and preheat the oven to 180C. In a medium bowl add all your vegetables and cheese and stir together. Add salt or pepper if you want. In a separate bowl whisk the eggs. Place the vegetable mix evenly in your 3 dishes. Pour the whisked eggs evenly over the top in each dish. Bake in the oven for 20mins. When cool, run a knife along the edge and carefully tip the frittata out and allow to cool. Enjoy!

Soft inside, crunchy outside = yum!

Recipe #3: Cheesy Crumbed Courgette
These would have to be one of Oscar's favourite snacks. So quick & easy I like to have them handy in the fridge or freezer. The best part about them is that the zucchini/courgette stays so soft but the outside is crunchy. The cheese also takes away the sometimes bitter taste of zucchini.

Here's what you need:
1 zucchini/courgette washed, ends trimmed. Do not peel.
1 whisked egg
some plain flour
3/4 cup breadcrumbs
1/2 cup parmesan or other cheese
olive oil

Here's what you do:
Mix the cheese and breadcrumbs together in a bowl or plate. After you have trimmed the ends off your zucchini cut it in half lengthways and horizontally. Cut those pieces in half again, and continue to half until you have about 12-13 pieces. Lightly coat the zucchini in the flour, dip them into the egg and then cover with the breadcrumb/cheese mix. Heat a little olive or vegetable oil over a medium heat and lightly fry the zucchini until they are golden in colour. Turn them occasionally to cook evenly. I freeze mine in groups of 3. Enjoy!

Mushroom, Feta & Tomato Pasta Salad

I nearly didn't post this recipe as it's so simple and just a basic staple in my house that I figured it would be of no benefit to anyone. But because it's a basic I think it's an even better idea to share.

Now that I am home and chasing after my toddler son I often forget to eat lunch or by the time I feel hungry I feel too tired to make anything really tasty so will often just eat toast or biscuits.

This pasta salad saves me lots of time and is also tasty. I usually make it on a Monday and eat it for lunch for the next 3-4 days. My son will eat it for lunch or dinner too, although I usually vary the recipe slightly for him.

The best part about it is that you can exclude/include any ingredient you like.

Ingredients

Here's what you need:
1 packet Farfalle pasta (or whichever you prefer)
1 small punnet mushrooms, washed and sliced
1/2 cup sun-dried tomatoes (I use cherry tomatoes cut in 1/2  for my son's version)
6 strips of thinly sliced bacon, rind removed & chopped small
1/4 cup pine-nuts
3/4 cup  pesto
feta cheese
1/2 cup croutons (I used packet ones but easy to make yourself too)

Here's what you do:

Cook all the pasta in a large pan of salted water for about 12minutes or to packet instructions. You don't want the pasta to go too soft. When cooked, drain a couple of times and pour cold water over the pasta so it won't stick together. Place in a large bowl, cover with cling wrap and let cool. I often put mine in the fridge to speed up the process.

When you're ready, put a little bit of olive oil in a fry pan and cook the bacon for a couple of minutes. Add all the mushroom and cook for a further 4-5minutes or until the mushroom is soft. I use a lot of mushroom because they shrink quite small and I love them. Add the sun-dried tomatoes at the end for about 1 minute only.

Stir through carefully

Remove the ingredients from pan and drain on sorbent paper. Add the pine-nuts to the hot pan and toss continually to brown them, this won't take long. Take the cooled pasta from the fridge and drizzle a little bit of olive oil and stir through (to unstick the pasta). Add all the cooked ingredients, plus the pesto, and gently stir through, turning the pasta over. Make sure to bring the pasta from the bottom to the top. I usually add more pesto at this stage if I think it's not enough.

You can eat the salad like this but I add crumbled feta and croutons. Today I added blue cheese but it was a bit too salty. When my son has this for dinner I use cherry tomatoes instead of sundried.

Enjoy!

Cornflake & Herb Crusted Fish

Dinner!

Being Good Friday and all I decided to cook fish for dinner. I always love fish served on a bed of mash and decided to use up my fridge supplies to make a pumpkin & potato mash plus the standard 3 steamed vegetables: carrot, cauliflower, brocoli.  To make the meal more exciting I went on the hunt for an interesting fish recipe and allrecipes.com.au came to the rescue. This crust mixture is just perfect. While eating dinner I brainstormed other uses for the crust: to stuff a portobello mushroom or tomato or on a grilled chicken breast. I seriously loved it and love the fact that one of the main ingredients are cornflakes! Definitely child friendly and you could substitute some of the ingredients for simpler ones if needed. 

So with the menu organised I invited some friends around, had a couple of bottle of wines and a perfect start to the Easter weekend. 

Here's what you need:

1 cup of cornflakes, crushed. I put them in a ziploc bag and crushed them up small with my hands

1 tablespoon chopped Italian basil

2 tablespoons grated parmesan (you could try cheddar cheese or another type)

1 tablespoon of sun-dried tomatoes, chopped up small (you could use standard tomatoes diced)

1 whole lemon zest

Olive oil

Fish - as I live in Thailand I am always cautious of the fish I buy. I used Dory fillets in this recipe.

*Any vegetables you want to cook to serve on the side

Here's what you do: (very easy)

Preheat your oven to 180c. Add your crush cornflakes and all other ingredients to a bowl and mix with a wooden spoon. Place your fish on a foil lined oven tray and drizzle some olive oil lightly over the fish pieces. Use your hands to press the mixture all over the top layer of the fisher. Drizzle again slightly with olive oil. Bake in the oven for about 12mins. That's it!

* recipe would cover 2 large fish fillets

** I served Crispy Chocolate Wontons for dessert

Five! Vegetable Rissoles

I just made these rissoles up for Oscar's lunch today and they are great. So many variations possible and I think next time I will add some chicken. The recipe was adapted from Annabel Karmel's fantastic cookbook, New Complete Baby & Toddler Meal Planner, which I've mentioned before is a favourite. The only change I would make to this recipe is to slightly cook the broccoli first before adding to the frypan as they were still a bit crunchy at the end.

The recipe made 6 medium sized rissoles which I have frozen.

Here's what'll you need:

Ingredients

3 medium potatoes or 300g                
25g butter        
50g sweetcorn  
50g broccoli florets chopped up small              
1 small onion, peeled and chopped      
1 garlic clove crushed                          
6 mushrooms or 75g                            
1 medium carrot, peeled & grated        
vegetable oil for frying  
1 teaspoon soy sauce        
flour for coating
1 egg, beaten
75g breadcrumbs
75g grated cheese (I used cheddar, recipe suggests Gruyere)    

Here's what you do:    

The mixture 

Peel and boil the potatoes under tender (for about 10-15mins), wait for them to cool (unlike me who literally kept dropping a hot potato) and then grate them using a cheese grater. Keep to the side.

Melt the butter in a frypan and cook the onion, garlic and broccoli for about 4 minutes or until they become soft. I think I needed to do this for longer though as my broccoli were still a bit crunchy. Add the mushrooms and cook till they shrink a bit then add the grated carrot and cook for about 2mins more. Add the sweetcorn and cook for 1 more minute.

Mix in the grated potato, cheese, soy sauce and salt & pepper if you like. I never add any salt but it's up to you. You mixture will become almost gooey like, perfect for shaping into rissoles.

Ready for frying

Take the mixture off the heat and allow it to cool (again, I am an impatient cook and didn't listen to my own advice). Using your hands, mould the mixture into 6 rissole shapes. Make sure to pack down the ingredients, otherwise they will fall apart. Roll each rissole in flour, dip it in the egg and then coat with breadcrumbs. 

Heat the vegetable oil in a fry pan and cook the rissoles until crisp. Enjoy!

Oscar eating his rissole with baked beans

Sweet Potato & Pear Soup

The best part of cooking this soup was smelling the butter cooking at the start - dreamy! This recipe was adapted from the Family Circle Quick Short Recipes cookbook and it was super easy and tasty. The recipe made 5 kid sized serves (which I put in the freezer) and 2 adult serves.

Here's what'll you need:

25g butter
1 onion chopped finely
3 medium sized, orange sweet potatoes (or 750g) peeled & chopped into 2cm cubes
2 firm pears, peeled, cored, and chopped
3 cups or 750ml stock (chicken or vegetable). I used pre-made stock as it was easier for me today.
1 cup cream or milk

Here's what you do:

Melt the butter in a large saucepan over a medium heat, add the onion and cook for about 3mins or until the onion is soft, almost see-through. Add the chopped sweet potato and pear and stir for 2mins then add stock, bring to the boil and cook for 20mins. I have made chicken stock from scratch before but i just wanted a quick Sunday dinner so use store bought stock.

Place the mixture in a blender or Magimix and blend until smooth (I love my Magimx!). I then spooned 4 large spoons of the soup in tupperware containers without adding the cream, you can do this when reheating at a later date. If you are going to eat immediately return the mixture to your saucepan, stir in the cream (I used milk) and reheat slowly. Season with salt or pepper and that's it, enjoy!

Ricotta & herb gnocchi with tomato sauce

I adapted this recipe from the Healthy Eating cookbook by Family Circle and even my husband commented while eating that it "tastes healthy." I'm happy with the way it turned out and given how easy it is to make, we'll definitely have it for dinner again. Oscar loved it as much as we did too which is always a plus. The recipe made 3 big serves.

Ingredients

Here's what you need for the gnocchi:

450g ricotta cheese
35g grated parmesan
20g chopped mixed herbs (I used parsley, thyme, chives, basil)
pinch of nutmeg
120g white breadcrumbs (I used white sliced bread & put it through the Magimix)
2 beaten eggs
plain flour for rolling

Place the mixture in the fridge

Here's what you do:

To make the gnocchi combine all the ingredients (except the flour) in a bowl. I used my KitchenAid but it's easy enough with a wooden spoon as well. Once mixed, cover and place in the fridge for at least 2 hours, longer if you wish. I've made it before and left it overnight.

When you're ready to make the pasta use the flour to dust an area on your kitchen bench. Take the mixture out of the fridge and use your hands to knead it gently. Add flour to your hands as needed so the mixture doesn't become too sticky.

Roll the pasta mix into long ropes

Divide the mixture into sixths and roll out each part with your hands on the flour surface. Roll the mix into a long rope shape about the thickness a finger and use a knife to cut the mix into 2cm pieces. Put a piece in the palm of your hand and use a fork to lightly press a ridge on both sides. You want the gnocchi to be a slightly rounded. Place each piece on tray lined with baking paper.

Place on a tray before cooking

Boil salted water in a large saucepan. You need to cook the gnocchi in batches and they only take about 2-3 mins to cook. You know they are ready when they float to the surface of the water. Don't take them out too quickly as they can go soggy. Use a large slotted spoon to collect each piece and make sure to drain it well. Place in a bowl and repeat process until all gnocchi is cooked.

Serving Sauce:
I served my gnocchi with a tomato sauce. I made the sauce while the gnocchi mix was cooling in the fridge.


Here's what you'll need:

Final product - delicious!

1 onion chopped finely
2 garlic cloves crushed
800g or 2 cans of whole tomatoes
2/3 cup of thawed frozen peas (optional)
a pinch of sugar
1 tablespoon shredded basil
1 tablespoon of olive oil

What to do:

Heat the oil in a medium saucepan and add the onion and garlic. Cook over a low heat for about 8mins or until the onion is soft but be careful not to brown the onion. Add the tomatoes and simmer for about 7mins then add the sugar and peas and cook for a further 2 minutes. Stir in the basil and cook for another minute or so.

Take off the heat and let cool for a minute. Place your cooked gnocchi in a bowl, spoon on sauce and shave (using a potato peeler) some pieces of parmesan.

Enjoy!