Pumpkin gnocchi with gorgonzola sauce
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Serves 8
1kg russet or other floury potatoes, scrubbed
2kg butternut pumpkin, cut into eighths and seeds removed
rock salt, as needed
1⅔ cups plain flour, plus extra for dusting
250g cornflour, plus extra if needed
250g Grana Padano, freshly grated
fine salt
2 eggs
1 cup water
100g unsalted butter
24 sage leaves
300g gorgonzola dolce, diced
Preheat the oven to 180C. Place the potatoes and pumpkin on a bed of rock salt on a baking tray and bake for 1-1½ hours or until a wooden skewer can be inserted into a potato without any resistance.
Remove from the oven, cut the potatoes in half and immediately press, flesh-side down, through a potato ricer, on to a clean, dry workbench lightly dusted with extra flour, spreading it out on the bench. Remove the pumpkin skin and press the flesh through the ricer on to the potato. Leave to cool for a few minutes.
Sift the combined plain flour and cornflour over the top, sprinkle with 200 grams of the Grana and fine salt to taste and break the eggs into the centre. Using a pastry scraper and your hands, work the mixture until the dough just comes together; don't overwork it, add a little more cornflour if it's too moist.
Shape the dough into a four-centimetre-high brick, cut lengthways into one-centimetre-thick slices. Cut each slice into one-centimetre-thick strips and roll gently with your hands to form logs. Cut the logs into one-centimetre-thick pieces.
Bring a large heavy-based saucepan of salted water to the boil. Add the gnocchi and cook for 1-2 minutes or until they rise to the surface.
Meanwhile, combine the water, butter and sage leaves in a heavy-based frying pan over medium heat. As the gnocchi rise to the surface, scoop them up with a slotted spoon, drain well and add to the frying pan. Gently toss for a couple of minutes to coat well.
Remove from the heat, add the gorgonzola and remaining Grana and continue tossing until the cheese has melted. Transfer to a platter or divide among plates and serve.
Pork belly roasted on the spit with apple salad
Serves 12
1 × 2kg pork belly, skin on
500g fine salt
2 tbsp salt flakes
½ tsp freshly ground black pepper
10 sprigs rosemary, leaves finely chopped
1 potato, scrubbed and cut in half (optional)
Apple salad
2 red apples
4 large handfuls (about 4 cups) lamb's ear lettuce
100g Grana Padano, freshly shaved
chardonnay vinegar, for drizzling
extra virgin olive oil, for drizzling
salt flakes and freshly ground black pepper
Place the pork on a tray, skin-side up, and cover the skin with fine salt. Refrigerate for six hours, then brush off the salt.
To butterfly the pork, slice it widthways almost all the way through. Open it up and spread the salt flakes, pepper and rosemary over the flesh. Roll it up like a Swiss roll, as tightly as possible so that only the skin is showing on the outside, if possible. Loop a piece of kitchen twine lengthways around the centre of the roll and tie it, then turn the roll 90 degrees and loop the twine around again. Tie it off, then tie around the circumference of the roll at four-centimetre intervals. When you get to the end, go back the other way, placing the twine diagonally between each section.
Thread a rotisserie fork (or half a potato), on to the barbecue spit, then thread the rolled pork on lengthways and finish with a rotisserie fork (or remaining half of the potato), to hold it firmly in place.
Place over a cold barbecue, place a metal tray underneath the spit (a disposable aluminium one is fine), then turn the heat on to low. Cover and cook for 1¾ hours, checking occasionally that the roll is securely attached to the spit and browning evenly; if not, carefully reposition the pork on the spit. Increase the heat to medium, poke holes in the skin with a carving fork to release some of the fat (this will help crisp the skin), and cook for another two hours. Turn the heat off and leave, with the lid closed, for 30 minutes; the pork will continue to cook in the residual heat in this time.
Meanwhile, to make the apple salad, thinly slice the apples and combine with the lettuce, Grana, a drizzle each of vinegar and oil, and salt and pepper to taste.
Remove the twine from the pork, cut into one-centimetre-thick slices and serve with the apple salad. Discard (or eat!) the potato.
Apple pie from milan
Serves 8
1kg russet apples
⅓ cup dry white wine
finely grated zest of 1 lemon
180g castor sugar
1 pinch of fine salt
¼ cup sultanas
60g mixed peel
60g unsalted butter
18 slices white sandwich bread, crusts removed
1½ tbsp dark rum
cream, to serve
Preheat the oven to 180C. Peel and core the apples and cut each one into 16 thin wedges. Place in a heavy-based saucepan over high heat with the wine, lemon zest and 90 grams of the castor sugar.
Bring to the boil, then reduce the heat to medium and cook, covered, for 10 minutes. Uncover, add the salt and cook for another 15 minutes or until the liquid has evaporated. Remove from the heat, stir in the sultanas and mixed peel, then cover and set aside.
Beat the butter and remaining sugar with a wooden spoon until well combined. Use three-quarters of this mixture to butter the base and side of a 23-centimetre round springform cake tin. Completely line the base and side of the tin with the bread, cutting the slices to fit as necessary and reserving some for the top, pressing gently to secure them in place.
Fill with the apple mixture, then top with the remaining bread and spread the remaining butter mixture over the top.
Bake for 40 minutes or until the bread is lightly golden. Remove from the oven, immediately pour the rum over the top and set aside for 30 minutes.
A Lombardian Cookbook: From the Alps to the lakes of Northern Italy, by Alessandro Pavoni and Roberta Muir. Lantern. $59.99.