Antonio Carluccio's Gnocchi with Porcini Sauce

A Quick and Easy Traditional Recipe from Trentino

Mar 7, 2009 Rebecca Ford

If you love mushrooms, then try this quick and easy recipe for Gnocchi with a Porcini Sauce, from Italian chef Antonio Carluccio. It will give you a taste of Trentino.

Celebrity chef Antonio Carluccio is passionate about mushrooms - and knows a great deal about Italian regional cookery. As he says in his cookery book Italia: the recipes and customs of the regions (pub. Quadrille £14 99), Trentino in the far north of Italy is noted for the quality of its wild mushrooms. In this recipe (which appears here with permission) Antonio Carluccio uses porcini mushrooms to make a tasty sauce for ricotta dumplings (gnocchi). Gnocchi are a typical dish of the Trentino region, which has strong Austrian/Germanic influences in its cuisine. Gnocchi taste delicious with this porcini sauce, but you also eat them very simply - with grated Parmesan and butter.

Ricotta Dumplings with Porcini Sauce Recipe

Gnocchi di Ricotta con Sugo di Porcini

Ingredients - serves 4

For the gnocchi

  • 400 g fresh ricotta (preferably sheep's milk)
  • 180 g plain flour
  • 4 tbsp dry breadcrumbs, plus extra if needed
  • Salt and pepper
  • Freshly grated nutmeg

For the porcini sauce

  • 20 g dried porcini mushrooms
  • 70 g butter
  • 1 garlic clove, crushed
  • 200 g fresh porcini mushrooms, finely sliced
  • 1 tbsp torn parsley leaves
  • 2 tbsp dry white wine

To finish

  • 50 g Parmesan, freshly grated

Method

  1. To make the gnocchi, mix the ricotta, flour and breadcrumbs together, seasoning with salt, pepper and nutmeg to taste. To check that the mixture will stick together (there is no egg here), take a little pellet of the mixture and drop it into boiling salted water. If it falls apart, you need to add some more breadcrumbs to the mixture.
  2. When the consistency is right, roll the mixture into sausages, 2 cm in diameter, and cut into 2-3 cm lengths. Press the gnocchi gently on the tines of a fork to give them a rippled effect, rolling them off onto a clean tea towel. Cover and rest for 30 minutes.
  3. Meanwhile for the sauce, soak the porcini in hot water for 20 minutes. Drain and chop the soaked porcini, reserving the liquid. Melt the butter in a pan, add the garlic and fry until softened but not coloured.
  4. Immediately add the sliced fresh and dried porcini and sauté for 5-8 minutes. Season with salt and pepper, and add the parsley, wine and porcini liquid (leaving any sediment behind). Bring to the boil and reduce slightly.
  5. Bring a very large pan of salted water to the boil, add the gnocchi and cook for a minute or two, scooping them out with a slotted spoon when they come to the surface. Add them to the porcini sauce and toss to mix. Serve hot, sprinkled with grated Parmesan.

Now try Carluccio's recipe for Polenta with Meat Sauce

The copyright of the article Antonio Carluccio's Gnocchi with Porcini Sauce in Italian Cuisine is owned by Rebecca Ford. Permission to republish Antonio Carluccio's Gnocchi with Porcini Sauce in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.
Antonio Carluccio's Italia, Alastair Hendy Antonio Carluccio's Italia