THE SNACK YOU WILL BE TASTING EVERYWHERE & other tastes of 2025
plus cheat canapés & how I think like Gordon Ramsay & Jamie Oliver!!
Gnocco Fritto: It already features on the snack menu of Wildflowers Restaurant, the restaurant that Jamie Oliver and Giles Coren have raved about this week ‘done exceptionally well from start to finish ‘and I first visited within a week of it opening late October declaring it one of my openings of the year.
It amused me massively as I had been served Gnocco Fritto at almost ever restaurant I visited in Modena back in October and at Massimo Bottura’s heavenly guest house in the Emilia Romagna countryside Casa Maria Luigia where it is part of the breakfast buffet based on Massimo’s grandmother’s Christmas breakfast.
Whilst I certainly wouldn’t go to such lengths on Christmas Day, a variation on the festive breakfast buffet would make a perfect brunch on one of the slumber twixt days.
The dishes that most appeal include roast plums with fresh ricotta and maple syrup, roast pumpkin with sage, a frittata made with slow cooked onions and the best balsamico tradizionale you can conjure up, gnocchi fritto with mortadella, mozzarella and more balsamico tradizionale , focaccia sprinkled with pecans and drizzled with honey.
GNOCCO FRITTO according to Massimo Bottura & Jess Rossval of Casa Maria Luigia
Ingredients:
2 teaspoons active dry yeast
Scant 3/4 cup (165g) sparkling water
130g plus 1 tablespoon double cream
3 teaspoons (12g) olive oil
600g 00 flour
2 teaspoons (15g) salt
Vegetable oil, for deep-frying
For serving:
16 slices mortadella
200g fresh ricotta cheese
3 tablespoons balsamico tradizionale
Gnocco fritto is fried dough traditionally made with flour, water, yeast, and lard and then fried in lard. Casa Maria Luigia prepare a lighter version of the dough without lard, using olive oil and cream instead. And fry it in vegetable oil.It is usually topped with cold cuts. Casa Maria Luigia serve it with a slice of mortadella, whipped ricotta .
Up until the 1960s, gnocco fritto was considered country food around Emilia-Romagna. Today, in and around Modena, you can find it at coffee shops and restaurants. It has become a signature Emilian ritual both for breakfast and as an antipasto, served as a starter to an evening meal with cold cuts.
Make the gnocco fritto:
In a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, stir together the yeast, sparkling water, cream, and olive oil.
Add the flour slowly and mix until the dough just starts to come together.
Don’t expect it to be smooth at this point.
Add the salt at the end and mix for another minute.
The dough will still be a bit rough. Wrap in cling film and leave it to sit in fridge for at least 2 hours..
Remove the dough from the fridge.
On a lightly floured work surface, roll the dough out to a thickness of about 1cm Fold the dough over itself in 3 (like a pamphlet) and start the process again.
Do this a total of 4 times. Wrap again and place in the fridge for another 12 hours.
Roll out and redo the fold once again, then roll out to 3 mm thick. Cut into 8 cm
Squares to yield about 16 in total.
Pour 10 cm vegetable oil into a deep heavy-bottom saucepan and heat to 180°C.
Line a sheet pan with paper towels.
Working in batches, add the dough squares to the hot oil.
They will start to puff, but don’t turn them too soon. Once the dough has puffed and the corners are slightly golden, carefully flip each gnocco.
Let the second side get ever so slightly golden. When lightly golden, transfer to the
lined pan to drain. They shouldn’t be too crispy.
To Serve:
For each serving, place 2 gnocchi on a plate. Top each gnocco with a slice of mortadella, a spoonful of ricotta, and a drizzle of balsamic vinegar.
You will be converted!
THE KIND OF GIFTS CHRISTMAS HOSTS WITH THE MOST APPRECIATE
If you’re fortunate enough to be a guest rather than a host (though I do love entertaining) do not, under any circumstances, turn up empty-handed.
The trick is to find something that your host will love but wouldn’t dream of buying herself and doesn’t need to go in the fridge which is probably precariously stuffed to capacity: some fancy extra virgin olive oil such as Citizens of Soil Organic Peloponese in a smart dark bottle; those marrons glaces I yearn for from a smart deli/Eataly or Fortnum’s if you can face the scrum; a bar of Pump Street chocolate with sourdough and sea salt or a bottle of Reverend Humboldt gin liqueur. Or perhaps something gorgeous to enjoy when everyone has gone: a quirky novel such as ‘What you are looking for is in the Library’ by Michiko Aoyama or a special Diptyque candle for dispersing cooking smells or a voucher for Borough Kitchen.
QUICKIE CANAPES
Cheat.
Buy Rahms Croustade Cases which I am assured some of the smartest caterers use.
Mix up some diced avocado spliced with lime juice, an ultra finely chopped, half a shallot, a couple of tbsp mayo and a pot of Seafood & Eat It Fifty Fifty white and brown meat crab and fill those croustades.
Find those cocktail sticks that have spilled out in your bits drawer. Give them a quick soak and dry in warm water as you don’t know what company they are keeping.
Buy some prosciutto (the best you can afford) I like the delicate, nutty sweetness of Natoora Prosciutto Langhirano and wrap narrow strips around some pitted Medjool dates (M & S do good ones), add a basil leaf if you have for greenery on those sticks.
Buy some ready cooked shrimps and spice them up by melting in butter with a good grating of nutmeg and two pinches of cayenne pepper. Either pop in some chicory leaves for crisp, healthyish version or grill some sourdough crumpets (from Waitrose)and cut into small pieces and top with the ‘potted’ shrimps.
Half ready-cooked quails’s eggs and Brindisi’s Nardin smoked anchovies with aioli (Brindisa do a decent ready made smoked garlic one)
I’ve just read the Weekend Times and see I am on the same page as Gordon Ramsay who says Beef Wellington is the new Christmas Day turkey. Bin the bird and go all-in for a proper showstopper. As I am catering for 10 today, Christmas Day my Beef Wellington comes from Parson’s Nose Butchers, I will report back!
WHAT YOU WILL BE EATING NEXT YEAR
You heard it hear first: a little sneak preview:
The grain: fonio, from West African grain;
Black limes, a key ingredient in Middle Eastern and North African cooking made bly blanching limes in salt and then drying until shriveled, brittle and black with a concentrated flavour that is brilliant in stews and soup;
The spice: hawaij, a Yemeni spice mix including ginger, cardamom, turmeric, black pepper, clovers fenugreek, cinnamon and nutmeg which gives a warm, earthy flavour
The quick fix: Filipino pancit stir-fried egg noodles
The snack: cucumber dill pickles: diy with equal parts white wine vinegar, caster sugar, a large pinch of salt, half a shallot finely diced and cucumber sliced on a mandolin or buy Kuhnes.
Dessert: exotic choux buns such as pistachio, rose and red plum choux served at Wildflowers Restaurant