Ilse's Kitchen - culinary adventures of a girl who loves to eat

Ready made gnocchi is just about the fastest dish you can make. That’s what’s so amazing about it - it’s fast, and almost always good. I have a couple of white sauce gnocchi recipes up on this site - like my pastas I have a penchant for cream-based over tomato-based sauces, but today I decided it was time for a red sauce. So I made this gorgeous, super easy chorizo mozzarella gnocchi. Ingredients (serves 2): one 125g ball mozzarella, torn into shreds 60g chorizo, diced 1/2 onion, finely chopped 1 clove garlic, minced 300g gnocchi 400g tomato sauce 1 teaspoon basil 1/2 teaspoon oregano 1/2 teaspoon sugar freshly ground black pepper 1 tablespoon fresh mozzarella and oregano, chopped, plus a bit extra to garnish Instructions: Preheat the top grill function of your oven. 1. Toss the onion and garlic in a saucepan together with the olive oil and heat for about 5 minutes until softened. Add the chorizo and cook for another 5 minutes. 2. Add the tomato sauce, sugar and...

The first time I had gorgonzola and spinach together was when Paulijn, a former housemate, made me gorgonzola spinach pasta - about a hundred years ago. At the time I wasn’t very experimental when it came to food, and I was not a fan of gorgonzola. Too blue, too strong, too smelly. I was decidedly sceptical, but tried to be well mannered and keep my mouth shut about it. And glad I did, for what she made wasn’t strong or smelly at all. What I learned that day was not too judged too quickly - ingredients change when you combine them with others, and things you never thought you’d like may surprise you in all kinds of wonderful ways. I also learned that spinach and gorgonzola make a lovely pairing. Here’s a lovely gorgonzola spinach gnocchi recipe, adapted from Brandy at Nutmeg Nanny.  Ingredients (serves 2): 250g gnocchi 1 shallot, thinly sliced 120ml cup heavy cream 120g crumbled gorgonzola cheese, plus some for topping 85g fresh spinach 1/2 teaspoon fresh oregano, minc...

I had a box of shiitake sitting in the fridge. I like shiitake - they hold less water than other mushroom types and have a meatier texture and lovely, smokey flavour. So when I was brainstorming what to do with them and came across a mixed mushroom gnocchi recipe from Sydney Markets, I decided to swap the mixed mushrooms for shiitake and to make shiitake gnocchi instead. What a lovely dish it turned out to be.  Ingredients (serves 2): 300g gnocchi 300g shiitake mushrooms, halved 1 medium size onion, finely chopped 2 cloves garlic, finely chopped Sprinkle of chili flakes 20 sage leaves 100mL white wine (*substitute chicken stock if you don’t use alcohol) grated parmesan 2 tbsp olive oil 1 tbsp butter 1 tsp lemon juice freshly ground black pepper Instructions: 1. Prepare the gnocchi according to the instructions on the package and set aside. 2. Heat one tablespoon olive oil and one tablespoon butter in a large skillet and add the sage leaves. Fry until crispy...