Celeriac Gnocchi

• 400g celeriac, peeled and diced
• 10g olive oil
• salt and pepper
• 160g “00” flour + 30g extra for dusting
• 1 large whole free-range egg
• 2tbs semolina

Preheat the oven to 180°C. Peel and dice the celeriac into 20cm pieces. Use a large piece of parchment paper and a baking sheet. Mix together the celeriac, olive oil and seasoning and spoon onto the centre of the parchment paper. Wrap the parchment paper to form a parcel. Put the parcel onto the baking sheet and then place on the middle shelf of the preheated oven. Roast the celeriac for 30 minutes. The celeriac would have steamed with no colour. Open the parchment paper and dry the celeriac in the oven for a further 10 minutes, no colour and no liquid.

Spoon the hot celeriac in to a ricer and push the celeriac through, alternatively use the Thermomix to puree the celeriac until smooth.

Place the mashed celeriac in a large mixing bowl. Add the egg and flour. Gradually incorporate the egg and flour to form dough. Do this while the celeriac is still warm.

Bring a large saucepan with salted water to the boil; place a large bowl of ice water, extra bowl and olive oil ready with a slotted spoon.

Divide the gnocchi dough in to three/ four balls. With the palms of your hand roll each ball in to a long sausage shape with the help of the extra dusting flour.

Cut each sausage in to little pillows, Ross uses a pallet knife dipped in flour. Dust a large tray with semolina and place the cut pillows of gnocchi on the semolina. Use semolina as it sinks to the bottom of the boiling water and does not form an excess lump of flour stuck to the gnocchi.

Once you have cut all the gnocchi blanch the gnocchi in three batches in the rapid boiling salted water. Once they start to float about 5 - 6 minutes remove the gnocchi from the boiling water using the slotted spoon directly in to the ice water. Continue until all the gnocchi is blanched. Once completely cold drain the gnocchi from the ice water and lightly coat with olive oil. Spread the gnocchi on to a large tray and refrigerate until ready to serve.

Watercress Cream

• 150g watercress
• 20g butter
• 20g plain flour
• 100g milk
• 100g vegetable stock
• salt and freshly ground black pepper

I used the Thermomix to make this sauce but if you wish you can use the conventional method.

Weigh the butter, flour, and milk, stock and seasoning directly into the Thermomix jug. Set the timer to 8 minutes, speed 3 at 90°C. While the sauce is cooking in the Thermomix bring a small saucepan of salted water to the boil.

Once the sauce is cooked blanch the watercress for 30 seconds in the boiling water. Drain the watercress and add it directly to the Thermomix jug. Turn the dial gradually to speed 9 for 30 seconds. Scrape the sides down and adjust the seasoning if needed. Either chill the sauce until needed or my preference is to use the sauce immediately to ensure a bright green colour.

Assembling the dish:

• 100g small asparagus spears blanched
• 1 recipe of blanched chilled gnocchi
• 1 recipe of hot ready to serve watercress sauce
• 3tbs olive oil
• 50g fresh washed watercress

Heat a large non-stick frying pan with the olive oil, sauté the gnocchi until golden brown on both sides, add the blanched asparagus spears for a the last 30 seconds to heat them through.
Spoon the hot watercress sauce onto the base of warm serving plates ,arrange the golden brown gnocchi pillows with the asparagus spears and watercress. Finish the dish with a drizzle of extra virgin olive oil and enjoy!

Makes 4 portions

Food Fanatics Tips
To make successful light fluffy gnocchi pillows follow Ross’s guidelines:

1. Ensure that the celeriac is dry and does not retain any water, if the mashed celeriac is wet you will have a sloppy dough and this will result you to add more flour, result heavy lumps of gnocchi instead of light and fluffy.
2. Use a ricer to mash the celeriac.
3. Work fast to ensure that the celeriac does not cool too much.
4. Use semolina instead of flour once you have shaped the gnocchi as semolina is heavy and sinks to the bottom of the boiling water, this will prevent the gnocchi forming a heavy wet floury skin.
5. Ross always test a piece of gnocchi before cutting the dough, by boiling it and testing the seasoning. You can easily add more seasoning before you have shaped the whole batch.