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The wait now ends. I’ve been hinting about the fact that I had something in store for a while and la la la, although I have leaked the “big secret” out a million times…now it’s 100.000% officially out there, I am officially part of the IFood amazing network!
What is IFood? Let’s cut the story short, it’s the coolest Italian food (but not only) bloggers’ network. It all began with the Bloggalline who started this project with a publishing company and it ended up being what it is now – just check it out and see the magic for yourself 😉 And I didn’t only find people who share my love for eating and cooking, I found friends as well! What else can I say, it is such an honour to be part of both Bloggalline and IFood 😀 Look at them (us) all! As one of my mini sous chef would say 😀
What is going to change here? Not much! Oh well, my blog now is definitely way cooler, and here the special thanks go to the IFood team and Valentina Scannapieco – Occhi Ovunque for designing my new super cute header 😉 Aside from that, lots more cooking, lots more inspiration and lots more insanity!
To celebrate all this, the recipe you will find here is my reinterpretation of a dish out of IFood’s first book “Il Gusto della Terra” (yes, IFood has already a book out, I did tell you it’s cool!). The original recipe is by Elena Levati (Conunpocodizucchero.it) – ginger water gnocchi, so delicious – and to make sure I feel I am doing a great parenting job feeding my kiddies veggies, I sneaked some pumpkin in too 😉
This dish is warm, comforting and could be perfect as a starter or main for your Christmas lunch! This leads me to the next big thing in this post, a little Christmas project that me and my new IFood friends came up with to give lots of ideas all around the holiday season. They have been busy posting all sorts of cool stuff, I am a bit late in this department due to technical issue. However, you can check out their blogs for LOTS of Christmas inspiration: Elisa with La mamma cuocò, Lisa with Mum Cake Frelis, Elisa with Elisa in the sweet life, Veronica with La mia casa shabby, Alice with La blonde enfarinée and Alessandra with La cucina di zia Ale.
But now it’s time to get cooking, isn’t it?!
Ingredients
For the gnocchi:
200 g white flour
100 g wholegrain semolina
330 ml water
20 g ginger, peeled and chopped
a pinch of salt
Pour the water into a sauce pan, bring to the boil and add the ginger and cook for about 1 minute. Remove from the stove and let everything sit for at least 2 hours.
Remove the ginger, press it into the water with a garlic press and then pass it through a sieve. Bring the water to boil again, add a pinch of salt and remove from heat. Add the flour and semolina all at once and stir quickly with a wooden spoon until all the ingredients are well combined. Transfer the mixture onto a flat surface, let it cool slightly and knead with your hand until you get a nice ball.
Dust the surface you are going to work on with some flour and divide the mixture in 4 parts. Roll them to form long warm and cut every 2 cm to form the gnocchi. Bring about a liter of water to boil, cook the gnocchi until they float and remove from the pot.
For the soup
1 medium onion, chopped
500 g roasted pumpkin
10 g fresh ginger, peeled and finely chopped
750 ml boiling water
1 tsp maple syrup
a small bunch of fresh thyme
salt and pepper to taste
olive oil
Heat up the olive oil in a pot, add the onions and cook until soft. Add the pumpkin and cook over medium heat for about 5 minutes. Add the chopped up ginger, half of the thyme and boiling water and cook over medium heat for about 30 minutes. Blend the soup with a hand mixer and pass it through a sieve to make it nice and smooth. Put it back on the stove and let it reduce until you get the desired thickness. Add the maple syrup, salt and pepper to taste.
Place some of the soup in a bowl, some gnocchi and sprinkle fresh thyme leaves on top – enjoy!
Ingredienti
Gnocchi:
200 g farina bianca
100 g semolino integrale
330 ml acqua
20 g zenzero, sbucciato e tagliato a fettine
sale qb
Versate l’acqua in un pentolino, portate a ebollizione, aggiungete lo zenzero e fate cuocere per circa 1 minuto. Togliete il pentolino dal fuoco e lasciate riposare per almeno due ore.
Rimuovete lo zenzero dall’acqua, schiacciatelo con uno schiaccia aglio e mettetelo nell’acqua. Passate tutto in un colino, riportare l’acqua ad ebollizione, aggiungete una presa di sale e togliete dal fuoco. Aggiungete la farina e il semolino tutti in una volta e mescolate velocemente con un cucchiaio di legno fino a quando tutti gli ingredienti saranno ben amalgamati.
Trasferite l’impasto su una superficie piana, lasciatelo raffreddare un po’ e impastate con le mani fino a quando otterrete un panetto compatto ma morbido. Infarinate la spianatoia e dividete il panetto in 4 parti. Fate i tipici vermi da gnocchi e tagliateli ogni cm circa. Fate bollire circa un litro d’acqua e cuoceteli fino a quando galleggeranno. Toglieteli dalla pentola con una schiumarola.
Per la zuppa
1 cipolla media, tagliata fine
500 g zucca al forno
10 g zenzero fresco, sbucciato e tagliato finemente
750 ml acqua bollente
1 cucchiaino di sciroppo d’acero
un mazzetto di timo fresco
sale e pepe qb
olio di oliva
Scaldate tre cucchiai di olio di oliva in una pentola, aggiungete la cipolla e cuocete a moderato fino a quando sarà morbida. Aggiungete la zucca e cuocete per circa 5 minuti. A questo punto unire lo zenzero fresco, metà del timo e l’acqua bollente. Coprire e cuocete a fuoco medio per circa 30 minuti.
Frullate il tutto con un frullatore a immersione e passatelo in un colino in modo da ottenere una zuppa liscia. Rimettetela sul fuoco e fatela ridurre fino a raggiungere la consistenza desiderata. Aggiungete lo sciroppo d’acero e aggiustate di sale e pepe.
Versate un mestolo di zuppa in un piatto fondo o scodella, metteteci sopra gli gnocchi e un po’ di timo fresco. Servite caldo e buon appetito!
