Emmer gnocchi with seafood sauce

Recipe for gnocchi with seafood sauce

Preparation and cooking

• - Prepare potato gnocchi.
  If you want to prepare potato gnocchi made with emmer flour, follow my technique in potato gnocchi without eggs (link below!) but remember that flour and doses of this recipe are different or follow your favorite recipe.
  Any recipe you follow, once made gnocchi, gradually arrange them in floured trays, well detached from one another.
  You may need more flour for your gnocchi dough, in this case add all-purpose flour. It often happens using emmer flour.
• - Prepare smooth clams.
  In Italy we can't find smooth clams easily.
  In my tips I propose how to replace them in this recipe.
  But if you find smooth clams, be careful on these two things.
  First of all, they may contain pebbles and sand.
  So you have to place them in a large bowl and cover with salt cold water for at least 2 hours, changing water now and then.
  Smooth clam shells should open partially.
  If it doesn't happen smooth clams are not fresh, really!
  Then, you have to transfer smooth clams in a pan, half covered, on high heat to make their shell could open totally.
  This step takes a few minutes.
  I know very well that competent people open them forcing their shells but it takes time and manual dexterity. I do not have both of them as most people.
  Let them cool and then remove molluscs from the shells.
  You probably need to rinse them again if they had still any sand.
  Filter the liquid emitted during the short cooking and set aside.
  If your smooth clams are large, they need to be beaten with a wooden hammer for kitchen to break their fibers and avoid over cooking that would make their meat woody.
  Then chop molluscs.
• - Prepare shrimps.
  If you buy precooked shrimps you have only to remove their head and shell.
  Add them to your seafood sauce together with gnocchi.
• - Prepare Nile perch.
  Nile perch has firm flesh, perfect for seafood sauce. Cut its flesh into very small pieces. The ideal solution would be to grind it.
• - Prepare seafood sauce for gnocchi.
  Wash cherry tomatoes and halve them.
  Chop leek.
  Fry leek slightly in olive oil on low heat.
  Add halved tomatoes, stir and let your ingredients flavor for few minutes.
  At this point add shelled smooth clams and their filtered liquid together with some wine (about 50ml - 1 2/3 fluid ounce).
  Let all cook for 10 minutes on low heat.
  Then add Nile perch and parsley.
  Complete seafood sauce cooking in other 10 minutes.
  Add hot water only if necessary.
  Don't let your sauce reduce too much.
  I don't add any salt because all the ingredients are already salt but it would be better to check salt, anyway.
• - Cook and toss gnocchi.
  Bring to a boil abundant salt water and cook gnocchi, few at a time.
  When they come to water surface, transfer them to the pan with gnocchi sauce and stir.

Just before serving

• - When you've finished cooking your gnocchi, add shrimps too in the pan and saute for a minute, on high heat, stirring with delicacy.
  Your gnocchi with seafood sauce are ready to eat.

Note

Tips

• - Of course you can choose to buy ready-made gnocchi. Or prepare your gnocchi with all-purpose flour as you've the habit to do.
• - If you don't find smooth clams but you wish to taste this sauce I suggest to replace them with clams or scallops (4 to 5 large scallops or 1kg - 2.2 pounds clams).

Menu planning

• - Potato gnocchi made with emmer flour and tossed with seafood sauce is a great dish for your family menu on Sundays when you have more time available and you can do gnocchi at home.
• - Gnocchi can be served even in a full menu but in smaller portions.
  In general, I study appropriate menus for gnocchi. It is already a main dish. So I prefer to serve a lot of assorted appetizers, then this gnocchi dish and at last a cake. Have a look at our Italian antipasto ideas, finger food, crostini, savory pies, pizza and focaccia (both to be served cubed). Accompany what you've chosen with sliced fish (fresh or smoked tuna, salmon or swordfish), Russian salad, dressed black and green olives, Italy style ... Perfect menu idea for your get-togethers.

Useful links for this recipe

• - Here's my recipe for homemade gnocchi without eggs.
• - You could be interested in smooth clam linguini too if you like smooth clams.
• - Follow the link to Italian starters to browse our directory :))

Healthy eating

• - Have you read nutrition facts of this gnocchi dish? It's high in calories, fat, carbo and proteins. It's easy to undestand why these values. Gnocchi are made with potatoes and flour. Their sauce is rich in ingredients. It's the reason why I've already suggested it for your Sunday menu.
  On the contrary, you can turn a blind eye once in a while in your get-togethers.
• - I use emmer flour more and more often, especially wholemeal, stone ground emmer flour, because it causes a low rise in blood glucose compared to all-purpose flour. For those who have a family tradition of diabetes is extremely important to make the right choice of cereals. But it is an important and wise choice for we all.
• - I wish to focus on the usefulness of preparing potato gnocchi at home. It is a right choice for our wallet because we spend far less. We earns in health because we can choose the quality of the ingredients and we eat food without preservatives, food dyes ... And we do a lot of good for the environment because we can buy products near home (farmer markets) and we have to throw away no packs. The only waste products are potato skins. They end up in the compost. Better than this ... ;))
  

Loretta

What's the right wine ?

Match to this delicious gnocchi dish a white wine. My husband and I prefer Vermentino from Liguria or Vermentino di Gallura from Sardinia.