Lifestyled by Paula Joye

As promised here is Part 2 of my interview with the awesome Lorraine Elliott of Not Quite Nigella fame (CLICK FOR PART 1). In this instalment we cook her special Ricotta and Chive Gnocchi.

Did I mention the burnt butter sauce? It’s a life changer…

Ricotta & Chive Gnocchi.

Ingredients

250g fresh ricotta
1/4 finely grated Parmegiano Reggiano plus 1/4 cup extra for sprinkling
1/4 cup flour
1 egg
2 tablespoons Fresh chives plus extra for decorating
salt and pepper
35g butter plus 15g extra for dotting

Method

1. Brush a baking dish with butter and bring a pot of water to the boil. Preheat oven to 190C.

2. Mix the ricotta, reggiano, flour and egg in a bowl and snip some chives so that it is speckled green. Season with salt and pepper. Shape into a gnocchi shape between two teaspoons.

3. Drop 6 at a time in the boiling water and wait til they float to the top (a minute or two). Using a slotted spoon drain all of the water and place on buttered baking dish. Top with extra reggiano and dot with the 15g of butter.

4. Bake in oven for 15-20 minutes until it becomes crispy at the top.

5. Meanwhile, brown butter until it becomes nuttily fragrant. The easiest way is to heat a small saucepan until medium hot and add butter, it will foam up and become very quickly browned.

6.Serve browned butter lightly drizzled over the gnocchi and snip extra chives and salt flakes to dress.

Making Quenelles.

These are the things you see the contestants fretting about on MasterChef all the time. Little rolls of ice cream, cheese, anything soft…they’re really pretty easy once you get the knack. It’s just getting the knack that’s the tricky bit. Watching Lorraine in action I learnt it’s all about repetition – roll it over and under the teaspoons until you get that smooth round finish.

 How To Burn Butter.

You can almost smell this video….Lorraine shows us how simple it is.

The Taste.