Fast Ricotta Gnocchi with Roast Tomato & Eggplant Sauce

Fast Ricotta Gnocchi with Roast Tomato & Eggplant Sauce – light, fluffy gnocchi that come together in a flash, with a flash oven roasted summer sauce, lots of freshly grated parmesan and torn basil.  Jump to Recipe

I have a big piece of news today! It’s T-10 days until I board a flight to the UK for approximately 7 months (or, maybe more accurately, until both my money and visa run out). It’s a year off medical school, substituted instead for a research project based in Oxford, with the added bonus of Europe travel proximity. To say I’m excited would be an understatement! I’ve only ever spent a week in London, so if any of you have any must-do recommendations, or particularly recommendations for Oxford, I’d love to hear from you. 

I imagined this summer break stretching out long and lazy, with another whole month back in New Zealand compared to the last couple of years. A treat! But it’s somehow almost over and I’m still scrambling, though I know I’d much rather be busy than bored. Trawling the internet for reasonable banking options overseas is currently doing my head in and has stolen way too many hours (why are banking fees so vague, hard to locate and overwhelming complex??). That’s not to mention packing (baggage for 7 months is daunting, ok!), budgeting, visas, insurance, flights, SIM cards, transfers, accommodation…ugh. I’m also staring at a mostly untouched pile of heavy duty lit review textbooks, stacked between the clutter of recipe books and discarded kitchen notes. The plan has been to create a small recipe bank of sorts pre-departure for some extra content to post this year, but between part time work and my knack for procrastination – well, we might get half way there.

I remember as a kid being overwhelmed by the possibilities promised by a weekday at home (mildly sick, *cough cough*) – being stretched out on the couch with a book and the prospect of a cooked lunch, rather than warm plastic wrapped sandwiches. Endless hours to fill! It helped that I was a total bookworm, and could easily dive into various fictional worlds and not emerge until dinner. That concept seems to have flipped on its head now I’m trying to work at home.  Now, a non-structured day means time seems elusive,  slipping away in a haze of internet surfing, a tide of emails, coffee breaks and multiple supermarket trips. I’m not sure I’d make a particularly productive freelancer at this point, let’s say.

Typing this is out is now sounding more complain-y that I intended – between the jobs has been an absolutely stellar summer here in New Zealand. I’ve road-tripped and beach hopped from Auckland down to Mt Maunganui and Wainui in Gisborne, up to Omaha and across the Hauraki Gulf to Waiheke Island. There’s been the freshest roadside corn, grilled up on the barbecue and tossed with pesto, dinners of hours-old snapper finished with bubbling stone-fruit and berry crumbles. Potluck dinners, music festivals and more reading than I’ve done in ages. The other day finished with a surreptitiously swiped ripe fig from an overhanging branch, eaten warm five minutes later with a lick of bush honey (which was more exciting than a fresh fig with honey should be, I’m sure).

Our home tomato and basil patch has been especially abundant, and was part of the incentive behind this gnocchi. I had no idea that ricotta gnocchi could be so easily pulled together, and it’s quickly become a high rotation summer meal. With just three ingredients (ok, 4 if you count the salt) and about 10 minutes, you’ll have gnocchi all cut up and ready to cook. The sauce is my favourite – ripe tomatoes quickly chopped up and tossed in a few flavour enhancers – garlic, tomato paste, olive oil and salt – and then flash roasted for half an hour until they’re collapsed, bubbling and a few charred patches appear. The eggplant roasts at the same time, lightly brushed with oil. All it needs to finish is a generous dose of freshly grated parmesan and torn basil leaves.

The cast iron pan I used to finish up these gnocchi was given to me by Lodge Cookware Australia  – it’s perfect for all manner of dishes, especially for baked eggs and anything requiring those crispy caramelised edges.

Cook’s Notes:

• My only disclaimer is that the gnocchi are ideally made for 2-4 people – much more and it starts getting fairly tricky to cook as you’ll need to boil it in batches, and you might be better off using pasta (if you’re truly committed to gnocchi, go ahead-  just allow yourself enough time!).
• I’ve briefly pan-fried the gnocchi before serving for an extra golden edge, but this is totally optional- you could easily just boil them and stir into the sauce.
• Most ricotta gnocchi recipes used strained ricotta, which is bought from some high quality delis or done by straining regular ricotta through a cheesecloth or similar for at least 4 hours. I usually don’t plan ahead this far, so this recipe uses regular supermarket ricotta and uses a technique from Izy Hossack of pressing it between paper towels to reduce the excess moisture.