I know this sound kin of odd. Asian Gnocchi basically. I mean what kind of stupid fusion food is that? But if you remember that gnocchi is just a potato and pasta hybrid and that potatoes love asian flavours and pasta is really just noodles then it makes more sense. And it tastes amazing, I’ve tested it on friends for you, promise!

I consider this comfort food because you’ve got the starchy lightly pan fried tomato and miso butter. It’s by no means diet food but it’s filled with things that are good for you like veg and ginger and happy feelings. Happy feelings are a basic nutritional requirement right? I also would usually eat this with a pile of greens that are steamed/blanched then tossed in any pan juices after the gnocchi has been removed.

This is perfect meat free Monday (or any day of the week) food that feels a bit indulgent but doesn’t sit to heavily in your stomach. If you’ve never made your own gnocchi before you’re in for a treat because it’s amazing. I pan fry it in this instance so the sauce goes further and so there’s a good texture contrast with those mushrooms.

Whole dried chillies have a really different flavour to fresh chillies. You can roast the fresh ones to dry them out a bit if you don’t have dried on hand, like i did for these kung pao mushrooms.

The serving size isn’t huge, but it shouldn’t be with this sort of food  – it’s filling and deliciousness and you’ll have enough room for some yummy greens on the side.

Serves 4

Ingredients

1kg potatoes

2 cups rock salt

1 egg

1 cup flour

salt

4 dried chillies

1 Tbs olive oil

1 Tbs miso

2 Tbs butter

2 tsp chilli

2 tsp ginger, minced

300g mushrooms, sliced, 1cm thick

1/2 cup dry white wine or Chinese cooking wine

1/4 cup coriander leaves

2Tbs finely sliced spring onion

Directions

Preheat oven to 180 degrees celsius.

Cover a baking tray in a layer of rock salt. Pierce potatoes all over and place on salt. Bake for 1-1.5 hours until soft.

Once cooked place a large pot of water on the stove and bring to a boil.

Pass through a potato ricer whilst still warm. Add egg and salt and mix until just combined. On a clean bench top spread 1/2 the flour, place the potato mix on top and cover in the remaining flour. Use hands, a spatula or a pastry scraper to fold the potato and flour together until a dough forms.

Separate the dough into 4 pieces. Take one piece and with floured hands roll out into a long tube about 1.5-2cm thick. Pinch the end and cut off. Your first gnocchi! Continue to pinch and cut to make your gnocchi. There is a great video here. Repeat with remaining 3 portions.

Add gnocchi in handfuls to your boiling water. With a slotted spoon remove the gnocchi as they float to the surface and place in a colander. Continue until all the gnocchi is cooked.

Combine hot melted butter with miso and ginger and stir vigorously. Set aside.

Put a large heavy based fry pan on a high medium heat. Add olive oil and dried chilli and once hot add the gnocchi, add about 10 -15 pieces at a time and once one side of those is crisp and they’re not in danger of sticking, add another 15 and so on. Toss the pan every minute or so so gnocchi is crispy on all sides. Add 2 teaspoons of the miso butter and toss to coat. Remove from the pan and transfer to serving bowls.

Add mushrooms to the pan along with the wine and remaining miso butter. Cook until mushrooms are just staring to caramelise. You want there to still be some sauce in the pan. Pour over the gnocchi.

Garnish with coriander and spring onion and serve with some greens on the side.

HH.x