Squash & Goat Cheese Gnocchi with Chilli Butter

I picked the first of my sunshine squash on Friday - in the pouring rain !

It's been sat in my kitchen waiting on me gathering some inspiration on what to do with it.....

I looked through all my latest food magazines - but nothing was jumping out at me....

So, I decided to make it into gnocchi.

First of all, I halved the squash and removed the seeds. Seasoned and drizzled with a little olive oil. I then popped it face down in my halogen oven cooker and cooked it at approx 180deg until soft.

After that, I removed the flesh and left it in the fridge overnight until I was ready to use it today. It's such a bright, glorious colour don't you think ?

Recipe - enough for 4 > 6 good sized portions

500g of roasted and cooled squash. Should be dry - not wet consistency

125g soft goats cheese (type with no rind - almost like cream cheese)

1 large egg

good pinch of nutmeg

seasoning

150g plain flour (or as much as you require)

I whizzed the squash up in the food processor until smooth and then added in the pack of goats cheese and egg - blitzing again.

After that, I added the flour by hand until a soft dough was formed.

I divided by four and rolled each piece into a big long sausage, chopping sections off approx 1" long.

Keep aside only what you are about to use. Excess can be open frozen on a silicone bakeware tray liner in the freezer. After 15 > 20 mins then put the frozen gnocchi in a bag. They now will not stick together. These should keep for about a month and can be cooked from frozen.

To cook, drop the gnocchi into a pan of boiling water.

When the gnocchi are done, they float to the surface. I gave these about 30 seconds after they all floated to the top before removing.

I had a frying pan ready with some chopped red chilli and some melted salted butter to toss them in. Given locally grown sweetcorn is also starting it's short season, I had boiled and then tossed some kernels stripped from a cob in the butter too.

Dished up (no photos) it wasn't the prettiest. Without the sweetcorn, it would have looked more like I'd expect a bowl of gnocchi to look - but the lure of the new season sweetcorn was just too great. If you try this - the sweetcorn is totally optional. You could also play with some sage or other herbs in butter rather than chilli - but I like the combination of chilli and squash and goats cheese !

Sarah-Jane - August 2010 - http://www.siliconemoulds.com/ UK based, Shipping worldwide - silicone cake moulds