An Italian style midweek dinner, which can be made Gluten Free.
This is a spin on a classic Italian gnocchi dish that is easy enough to rustle up for a satisfying midweek dinner. I use Gluten Free gnocchi but I’ve given costs for ‘normal people’ too.
Remove the bacon from the ingredients list and check the Italian hard cheese for animal products to make this dish vegetarian.
Ingredients
500g Packet of gnocchi £0.75 (Gluten Free – £2.99)
Chestnut mushrooms (250g) £0.89
2x Rashers of smoked bacon (100g) £0.50
Brown Onion £0.10
3x garlic cloves £0.05
1/2 tub of half fat creme fraiche (200g) £0.53
250ml vegetable stock
4x cubes of frozen spinach (100g) £0.20
Olive oil
Basil leaves (optional)
Italian hard cheese (optional)
Serves 2 / 3
Total Cost – £3.02 – Gluten Free Cost – £5.26
Cost per portion – £1.51 – Gluten Free – £2.63
Total Cooking Time – Less than 40 minutes
Instructions
Firstly I clean and roughly chop an entire packet of chestnut mushrooms and set them aside in a colander ready for cooking.
Cut the onion into small cubes and crush and chop the garlic cloves. Heat these with some oil in a large frying pan or wok. I use whatever is clean and at the top of the pile in my cupboard.
Sweat the onions and garlic down until they start to turn transparent. Using kitchen scissors, cut the rashers of bacon directly into the pan. Cook until the bacon is as crispy as you like it.
Now add in the chopped mushrooms and sweat them down by a quarter before adding the vegetable stock. I then let this simmer for approximately 8 – 10 minutes before adding half a tub of half fat creme fraiche and the frozen spinach.
Whilst the mushroom and stock mixture is simmering get a pan of salted water on the hob to boil.
Once you have added the creme fraiche and spinach to the pan and your salted water pan is at a rolling boil, you can start to cook the gnocchi.
I add a handful of gnocchi to the pan to start with and add another one in every of minute or so. This means that as you are removing the cooked gnocchi the next batch is cooking underneath.
Gnocchi takes about two minutes to cook and is ready when it floats to the surface of the water. Remove the gnocchi with a slotted spoon and dump it directly into the mushroom and bacon pan, stirring the mixture as you add the gnocchi in. The stirring will also break down the cubes of frozen spinach.
Once you have stirred in the last batch of gnocchi you can plate up. Garnish with fresh basil and sprinkle or grate over the Italian hard cheese to your taste.
Normal People Food 