Gnocchi with Prima Donna pesto

Ingredients:

3.5 oz. (100 g) Prima Donna leggero
1.7 oz. (50 g) fresh basil leaves, finely chopped and keep a few leaves aside for garnish
2 cloves of garlic, finely chopped
1 oz. pine nuts, roasted
100 ml extra-virgin olive oil
freshly milled salt
lemon juice
35 oz. (1 kg) floury potatoes, such as Red Star
1 egg yolk
7 oz. (200 g) flour
8.8 oz. (250 g) cherry tomatoes, sliced into four

Also needed: food processor or a pestle and mortar

Preparation method:

Grate 2.6 oz. (75 g) of Prima Donna leggero and make the pesto by mixing the basil, garlic, pine nuts and the cheese in a pestle and mortar or in the food processor.  Gradually pour the olive oil into the mixture until it becomes a nice and smooth pesto. If so desired, season to taste with salt and pepper and a little lemon juice. Set this aside.

Scrub the potatoes clean and boil then with their skins salted water until cooked. Drain the potatoes, peel and puree them while they are still hot. Try to make a puree with as few lumps as possible. Allow the puree to cool down and then add an egg yolk. Sprinkle a work surface with some flour and knead the puree into elastic dough. Add the flour to the puree little by little. Do not knead too hard; otherwise the dough will become sticky.

Take a piece of the dough, sprinkle more flour onto this and roll it out with your hands into a “little sausage” around 2cm thick. Cut this roll into one inch pieces. Repeat this until all of the dough is divided into pieces.

Take a large fork and hold this in your hand with the prongs pointing forward. Now gently press each piece of dough with your thumb against the prongs of the fork and let the gnocchi roll onto a clean cloth. Repeat this with all the pieces of dough.

Cook the gnocchi in plenty of boiling salt water. When they are ready they will float up to the surface by themselves, which usually takes a few minutes. Remove the gnocchi with a skimmer and divide them among the plates. Divide the green pesto and the cherry tomatoes over the gnocchi and shave over this a few nice curls of the remaining Prima Donna leggero. Garnish with the unused basil leaves.

Wine tip:

Pinot Grigio (White)