Sunday treat

Gnocchi di patate con gli scampi

To me, Sunday afternoon often means work. Baptism, youth ministry, house visit… you name it. But every now and then I get to live a Sunday afternoon as I feel it should be lived: relaxing, enjoying the gifts of our Creator. Gifts you can eat, I mean. Because it’s about relaxing as well, Sunday food should taste magnificent but should not take too long to make. So boeuf bourguignon is out of the question. Gnocchi with langoustines or prawn however, is an excellent dish!

The recipe in The Silver Spoon (p. 306) invites you to make the gnocchi yourself. Why bother if you have excellent De Cecco pasta sitting in your pantry? Omitting that step saves me about an hour and a half. Then it’s just down to the sauce. Here’s what I’d use for four:

*4 tbsp olive oil

*400 g langoustines or prawns (I used prawns, any idea what langoustines cost these days?)

*parsley

*4 tbsp dry white wine

*50 ml double cream

*200 g tomoatoes, peeled and diced

*salt and pepper

My first problem with this recipe was that it calls for the cook to chop those delicious prawns. Now why would I want to do that? If they are too large, you can cut them when they are on your plate but you can leave them intact when cooking the sauce. Heat the olive oil, add the prawns and a handful of chopped parsley and stir-fry it for a minute or two. Add the wine and let it evaporate, than add the tomatoes and cream. Let that bubble for some 7 minutes. At that point I still find the sauce too runny, so you can choose to add a teaspoon of flour to let it thicken a bit.

Assuming you’ve prepared the gnocchi in the meantime (just read what it says on the package, it’s super easy), put the gnocchi on your dish and spoon the sauce over it. You’ve used only four tablespoons of wine, so there should be plenty left to have a glass of wine on the side! Buon appetito!