Baked Cheesy Gnocchi with spinach and tomato sauce.

Baked One Pan Gnocchi

On a chilly Friday, I wanted something stodgy and comforting to feed us, and the special offer, impulse-buy pack of gnocchi seemed the right thing.  I had stopped buying them for a while as the kids just didn't seem to enjoy them, but I don't like to give up, and I like a bit of a change sometimes from the pasta/rice/potatoes trinity of carb options. We do occasionally have a bread supper, but that's also rare.

So I began by frying the gnocchi slowly in some olive oil to get them slightly crunchy on the outside, which makes them a nicer texture after baking, I feel.  To make this a true one pot, I used a pan which can go in the oven also, but if you don't have one, you can always pour the contents into a baking dish before the final step.

Once they were starting to be golden all over (and this DOES take time) I added some frozen chopped garlic and allowed it to soften and lose its harsh bite.  I then added a box of Heinz Fritto which is basically a flavoured passata, and also swished out the box with some hot water and added that too.  I then put in a handful of balls of frozen chopped spinach and stirred them in and then brought the whole pan to a gentle bubble.  

Finally, I covered the top with a layer of grated mozzarella and put the pan in a preheated medium oven for about 20 minutes.

I was rewarded with a deliciously crunchy top cheesy layer, with good oozy strings of cheese when served, and a very filling and nutritious meal all round.  The kids did enjoy it, although it wasn't one they immediately said they'd request again, but clean plates and small victories, definitely!

lamb carved with a spoon

I didn't chart yesterday's food partly because it's my Mum's complicated recipe for black urad daal with kidney beans, and those recipes are available on the net if people wanna search, and also because I didn't cook it! Godfather No 1 pressure cooked it pretty quickly while I went out shopping with my 7yr old daughter. We all met up at a playground after shopping, and then went home and everyone enjoyed daal, rice and naan breads, even 2yr old littl'un who enjoyed dipping bread in "gravy" or "soup" til we taught her "daal", and she also loved picking out and chomping the kidney beans. Oh and plain white rice with butter. Tons of it.

So today I sprang out of bed and zipped downstairs before getting ready for church. I browned my half shoulder of lamb, which cost under £4, and then plomped it into the slow cooker. Then I added some ground and whole cumin seeds, about a teaspoon of each, about half a teaspoon of garlic granules along with a few peeled but whole garlic cloves, a tin of basics chopped tomatoes, some salt and cracked black pepper, about a third of a tinful of redwine and most of a small tin of pitted black olives. (The rest of the olives got halved and popped in a small tub for a snack for littl'un at church!) Then I covered it, switched it on, and got on with the rest of my day.

10 minutes before serving, oh about 6 or 7 hours later, with a heady lamby savoury aroma in the house, I heated up the fat that had rendered off the shoulder earlier, and added a little more from the slow cooker. Fried up a handful of chopped onion (I used the end of a bag of frozen that I keep there for emergencies) and another teaspoon each of cumin seeds and ground cumin. Then a little shake of dried mint, tho I could have used some shredded fresh mint at the end if I could have been bothered! Next a handful of raisins, and a handful of pine nuts went in, then in with some couscous, 9oz suited us fine, stir it around til all coated, sprinkle of my ubiquitous Marigold powder and pour on 9fl oz water. Switch off and cover. Leave for 5 minutes and fluff up. Served it with the lamb, the juices were gorgeous and delicious, and the meat was so tender I "carved" it with a spoon! Little'un tried the meat, but not mad for it, but I knew she was getting a lot of the goodness of the meat in the gravy and she ate tons of that with her couscous, and she really enjoyed the olives, pine nuts and raisins. The whole table was having to donate raisins from our own plates, and her Godfather was happy to donate most of his olives as he's not a huge fan of that fruit. Big'un loved the meat, gravy, all of it, and she's not the biggest meat eater usually. Clean plates, and contented tummies, so definitely a success and something to make again.

I won't mention the pudding as it was a bought reduced item, and it was scrummy, and I figured out I may well have still been able to make it cheaper, but it was a nice break that way and it was SCRUMMY... But a very frugal, thrifty, delicious dinner it was for us all.