A super supper of baked blue-cheese spinach gnocchi

19 January 2025 (Sunday)

Not a great night sleep had me awake at 3am and dozing off again just over two and a half hours later - I’d heard one bong after five bongs though not six bongs.

A cup of tea in bed was, as ever, rather nice and a lazy start to the day got me out of bed just after eight thirty.  More laziness took me to the plot around ten thirty… and walking the site filming I heard some type of dull sonic boom around eleven, and felt air pass across my face, whether physical or metaphysical I will never know.

A lazy day continued in the afternoon with much reading of Louise Penny’s A Trick of the Light… and making supper which is picktured here, or at least the leftovers for another day are!

The evening will be one of TV…

Recipe:  Baked Lidl Spinach Gnocchi & Broad Beans in a cream-style blue cheese sauce

I’m keen to defrost the freezer - the freezer of which I had to mend the handle the other day…

I’d bought some fresh Lidl Vemondo Spinach Gnocchi around the new year, being immediately worried about using them - most I’ve cooked ended up as bullets, and the ones I’ve made COULD have been used as bullets.

In the freezer are year-old portions of stilton, shop-bought broad beans, a tablespoon of leftover cream, and in the fridge are some leeks that need using, and a good glug of dry white white wine (about an inch at the bottom of a bottle).  Time to use these up.

I topped, tailed, split down half the length of each then cleaned the leeks under the running cold tap, leaving some water clinging; chopped them and then softened them in a pan on the gas in a few teaspoons of olive oil - about five minutes.  My pan was lidded so they steamed a tad too.  I then added a tablespoon of miso, stirring through, then about a dessert spoon of plain flour, swiftly adding about a cup of oat milk and stirring well to ensure no lumps.  I then added the wine and stirred through again until all was smooth.  I added and stirred through the gnocchi (400g), broken up stilton (I guess about 80g), and the broad beans (maybe 200g, they were still frozen).  Stirred through till all was coated I then turned down the gas to the lowest heat, with a lid, and let it cook gently for five minutes.  I then put all in a glass baking dish and popped in our preheated convection oven at 180° until golden, about fifteen minutes.

It was rather rich so we had half of the mixture between us, leaving leftovers for another day.  We served it with a grated salad of thinly sliced red onion, grated carrot and thinly red cabbage dressed with a dash or two of cider vinegar - the subtle sharpness really worked well with the rich dish.

Richard’s comment - a keeper!!!

Weather:  Grey, a little chillier, and that blanket of cloud remains!

Breakfast:  Bran Sticks, Yogurt, Banana
Lunch:  Squash & Red Lentil Soup, Quorn ham sandwiches with Lidl artisan baguette and cucumber
Supper:  Baked Lidl Spinach Gnocchi and broad beans in a cream-style blue cheese sauce, and grated salad.