If for Sunday lunch you don’t want to prepare traditional gnocchi, choose to amaze your guests with beetroot gnocchi with broad beans, pancetta and pecorino, a dish rich in flavors and with colors that evoke spring.
Beetroot gnocchi with broad beans, pancetta and pecorino are a mix of flavors: the sweetness and tenderness of the broad beans combined with the salty taste of pecorino and the smoky flavor of the pancetta make this first course sublime in its composition.
A dish that encloses genuine, peasant-tradition ingredients that will give a pleasant taste to the palate with every bite.
- Portions: 3 Servings
- Cooking methods: Boiling, Stovetop
- Cuisine: Italian
- Seasonality: All seasons, Spring
Ingredients
- 7 oz peeled potatoes
- 7 oz precooked beetroot
- 2/3 cup semolina flour
- 1 2/3 cups all-purpose flour
- 1 cup fresh shelled broad beans
- 7 oz smoked pancetta, diced
- 1 Tropea spring onion
- plenty of pecorino cheese
- 1 slice toasted Altamura bread, seasoned (optional)
- to taste salt
- to taste extra virgin olive oil
Steps
To prepare the recipe, start with the broad beans: peel and shell them.
Move on to the potatoes: peel them and place them in a pot of boiling water; when they are cooked, mash them and let them cool.
Cut the precooked beetroot into pieces and put it in a blender to reduce it to a creamy purée.
After preparing what you need, you can make the gnocchi.
On a work surface, pour the flour and place the potatoes and beetroot in the center; mix to form a dough.
Let the dough rest for about half an hour.
After the resting time, divide the dough into small portions and roll them into cylinders.
Cut into small pieces about 3/4 inch, which you will pass over the gnocchi board.
You can proceed with preparing the sauce by placing the smoked pancetta in a pan and browning it without oil.
In a saucepan, pour a little extra virgin olive oil and add the spring onion cut into rounds; let it soften over low heat.
Add the broad beans and cook for a couple of minutes, stirring.
Pour in about 1 cup (8 fl oz) of warm water, season with salt, and let cook for about ten minutes over low heat.
In the last two minutes, add the pancetta, stir and finish cooking.
Place the pot for cooking the gnocchi on the stove; when it comes to a boil, add the gnocchi and cook 6-7 minutes from when they float to the surface.
Toss the gnocchi in the pan with the sauce, adding a little of the cooking water, and before serving sprinkle plenty of pecorino… I used Calabrese pecorino, but Pecorino Romano works well too.
When serving, I added crumbled toasted Altamura bread seasoned with olive oil and oregano to each plate.
The beetroot gnocchi with broad beans, pancetta and pecorino, in their simplicity, their authentic and intense flavor will win over your guests who love simple tastes.
