Kohlrabi Gnocchi
Gnocchi are the dumplings of Italy. While perhaps the most common are made with potatoes, this version cannot be more than about 500 years old as the potato was not part of the European larder until after the discovery of the New World. What did people use before that time? It seems likely that other starchy tubers, such as turnips or taro. Kohlrabi is another option. Although not a tuber – but rather a swollen stem – this cabbage relative makes for a wonderful gnocchi which has a mild but sweet cabbage flavor but maintains the pale color of potato gnocchi. We were inspired to create these from a recipe in Marian Morash’s 1982 Victory Garden Cookbook (ISBN 978-0394707808). But her recipe is for something closer to a spaetzle. So we went digging into our cookbook library and found a few recipes for Gnocchi Verdi, made from spinach. We extensively adapted these to allow mashed kohlrabi to be the main vegetable ingredient, and are quite pleased with the result. Note that here we boil the gnocchi to make for an exceedingly tender dumpling. You’ll want to be very careful removing these from the boiling water and from the finished casserole to make sure they do not fall apart. If you’d like something a bit more hardy, we’d suggest you try placing the raw gnocchi balls in a single layer in a buttered casserole and baking them at 400° F oven for 20-25 minutes or until they have browned. You can then sauce them as detailed below. You could also consider deep frying the raw balls which ought to make a small fritter much like a round, cabbagey Glamorgan Sausage. 1 pound kohlrabi, peeled, diced, and cooked until tender Sauce:2 tablespoons butter Mash the cooked kohlrabi into a fine paste. To this add in the chevre, bread crumbs, eggs, green onion, romano cheese, salt, pepper and nutmeg. Mix very well, cover and let rest in the refrigerator for 2 hours. Using a 1” ice cream scoop, make balls of the chilled mixture and dredge with flour. Place on a tray. When all of the mixture has been used, place the tray back in the refrigerator for another 30 minutes. Preheat oven to 400° F. Make the sauce by melting the butter in a heavy pan over medium-high heat. When the butter becomes foamy, whisk in the flour, salt, pepper and nutmeg. Continue whisking for 3 minutes. Add in the milk and garlic and continue whisking until the mixture thickens, about 5 minutes. Add in 2 cups of shredded parmesan, and continue stirring until the cheese is melted, about 5 more minutes. Bring a large pot of salted water to a simmer. Gently drop the chilled balls into the water, making sure to put only enough into the pot to just cover the bottom. Simmer for approximately 5 minutes until the balls rise to the top. Gently lift the cooked gnocchi out of the pot and place in single layer in a well buttered cooking dish. Pour the sauce over the arranged gnocchi and top with the remaining parmesan. Bake until the top is nicely browned, about 20 minutes. Remove from oven and let cool for 20 minutes before serving. Archive |
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