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If the free edition of my newsletter this month is the sausage edition, then the bonus version is the butter edition. I am an enormous butter enthusiast, and will segue it into most meals I eat. It has many magical qualities - it thickens liquids; gives sauces shine; enriches stews and melts to form beautiful air bubbles in pastry. Here, you will find two recipes that use it in some of these ways to create indulgent, autumnal dinners.
Pumpkin Gnudi
I am a proper squash fanatic, and relish the time of year when it is in season again, so that I can eat it multiple times a week. Sweet and starchy, you can dress it up with lots of big flavours, or milder, fattier ones. I’ve gone with the latter here to make some really very easy dumplings.
‘Gnudi’ is a dish that originates in Northern Italy, and translates literally as ‘naked’, as it is pretty much just the inside bit of ravioli, minus the pasta. This is usually a ricotta and spinach mixture, flavoured with nutmeg and thickened with a little flour, giving you light little dumplings airier than potato dense gnocchi. I was inspired to make squash gnudi by a pumpkin flan I ate at a restaurant called La Zucca in Venice recently. It was a super light dish flavoured with warming nutmeg and cinnamon, and tasted like autumn on a spoon. I do not know what witchcraft they put in it to make it so delicious, but I came home to try to develop a dish similarly spiced and heavenly. And here she is!
Both the uncooked gnudi and the sauce would keep for a day in the fridge, so you could prep this in advance easy peasy.