Light and fluffy gnocchi, each little piece flavoured with lemon and basil. Once cooked, serve it drizzled with olive oil and butter and scattered with crunchy basil leaves and parmesan cheese with a wedge of lemon on the side.

Recipe and photo: Emma Boyd

Serves: 6

INGREDIENTS

500g potatoes (roughly 2 large, any variety that goes floury when baked)
2 tablespoons olive oil, plus extra for serving
2 cloves garlic, minced
250g ricotta
3⁄4 cup flour
50g parmesan, finely grated, plus extra to serve
2 eggs
zest of 2 lemons
1⁄2 cup basil, packed, finely chopped, plus about 60 leaves (not too large) for garnishing
11⁄2 teaspoons sea salt
90g butter
lemon wedges, to serve

METHOD

Preheat oven to 180°C. Prick the potatoes all over with a sharp knife to stop them from exploding when cooking. Roast for 1 hour or until a sharp knife goes in easily. Remove from the oven and set aside to cool.

Once cool, scoop the flesh from the potatoes and discard the skins. The recipe requires 360g of potato. Put this into a bowl.

Heat the olive oil in a small saucepan and add the garlic, frying until just starting to colour. Remove from the heat, add to the potato and stir well. Add the ricotta, flour, parmesan, eggs, lemon zest, basil and the sea salt and mix well until just combined.

Line a baking tray with baking paper and scatter with flour. Generously flour a clean work surface then scoop out an eighth of the gnocchi mixture, scatter with some flour, dusting some on your hands, and then roll the dough out until it is about 1.5cm thick.

Slice into pieces and arrange these on the baking tray. Repeat with the remaining mixture.

At this point, cover and refrigerate overnight if you want to make these ahead of time. Otherwise, when ready to cook the gnocchi, melt the butter in a saucepan and once hot, add the basil leaves and fry until crisp. Set aside. Generously salt a large pot of water and bring to a boil. Cook the gnocchi in three batches, cooking each for 3 minutes. Drain, then drizzle with olive oil and divide between 6 bowls.

Pour over the butter and scatter over the basil leaves, followed by a generous grating of parmesan and some freshly ground black pepper. Serve immediately with the lemon wedges.

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