Gnocci in Tomato Sauce

Peasant food - something to make with a lot of potatoes and a lot of tomatoes. Distinctly filling and calorific, loaded with herbs, garlic and olive oil.

Make Gnocci from potatoes cooked with several cloves of garlic, mashed with a big spoonful of pistou and a glug of olive oil. The mash is then kneaded into a dough by the addition of flour and formed into small dumplings, traditionally shaped with ridges from the back of a fork. These ones aren't really ridged very well, I was in a hurry.

Cook the dumplings in a big pan of boiling water, have the water boiling as you drop them in and as they rise to the surface scoop them out with a slotted spoon or sieve and drain.



Arrange the boiled dumplings in an oven proof dish, cover with a rich tomato sauce - the herbs in our meal tonight were sage, rosemary and lovage - add nutritional yeast flakes, some grated nuts or some bread crumbs for a crispy topping and bake until the sauce is bubbling and the top of the food is browned.



Serve with a green salad and a good wine.