Want a new way to sauce up an old favorite? The Petit Pois chalkboard wrangled me in from my hasty midday Mall-walk with this listing: gnocchi with fava beans and mushrooms. Yes, please. It’s one of those dishes in which every bite tastes slightly different—buttery mushrooms, tender bites of fava, garlicky goodness—and all pair very well with the pillowy little gnocchi. Combining the carrots and cream makes for a sweet and delicate sauce, and one you can use somewhat sparingly if you’re not trying to ingest your entire daily allowance of fat in one meal. (O.K., you might do that anyway.)
Mmmm, potato dumplings. And cream.
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Gnocchi have been around for centuries; some food historians think the recipe is older than that of pasta. The word gnocco translates literally to “lump,” but it’s also slang for a stupid person—if you’ve ever made them, though, you know they take some wits to perfect. The Petit Pois version cuts the traditional half-a-day prep time down to a couple of hours, but they’re super tender and thus more prone to falling apart. To give them a more textured bite, let the potatoes dry out for an hour or two after you rice them.
Petit Pois’ Gnochhi with Fava, Mushrooms and Carrot Cream Sauce
3 baked potatoes
1 egg yolk
1 1/2 cup flour
1 Tbs. olive oil
2 carrots
2 cloves garlic
2 shallots
2 Tbs. butter
1 cup white wine
1 cup cream
1/4 cup white button mushrooms,
cleaned and chopped
1/4 cup shiitake mushrooms, cleaned
and chopped
1/4 cup oyster mushrooms, cleaned
and chopped
1 Tbs. butter
1 tsp. minced garlic
2 Tbs. fresh fava beans
salt, pepper
Gnocchi: Boil a large pot of salted water. Peel skin from cooled potatoes and put through a potato ricer (or mince). Add yolk, sprinkle flour on top. Mix until a soft—not sticky—dough is formed. Roll into a long, thin log and cut into 1/2" pieces; cook in salted water until they float. After all pieces have been floating for about a minute, remove them from water and place in ice water until cool. Remove and toss with olive oil.
Carrot sauce: Peel and dice carrots, garlic and shallots. Place in a sauce pot with butter, cook over medium heat until carrots are soft and fragrant. Add white wine and reduce by half. Add cream and cook until tender, about another five minutes. Remove from heat, blend until smooth.
Mushrooms: Place a heavy-bottomed pan over high heat and add butter. When butter starts to foam, add mushrooms, cook until golden brown, and season with salt and pepper.
To finish: Place heavy-bottomed pan over high heat. Add butter. When butter begins to foam, add gnocchi. When gnocchi begins to brown, add minced garlic and sauté for 30 seconds. Add mushrooms, favas and carrot sauce. Season to taste.
