Brown Butter, Vanilla Bean + Sage Gnocchi
When recipe development goes SO right 🤎 beige food season supremacy!
Sheeeesh, it’s been a while since my last recipe… but in my defence, it’s my busiest time of year at work (I work full time for a matcha brand for those outta the loop), so don’t have as much time to play around in the kitchen as I used to - so sad. However, this is the perfect example of when recipe testing in my spare time goes so, so, so right.
Before I dive into the brown butter, let’s run through this week’s faves:
Snack of the week: Marinated cheese. I buy the Graceburn one in Borough Market every week and can’t stop, wont’ stop (I believe Meredith Dairy in the US does similar). Literally the best thing, on toast, on crackers, on a spoon.
Cookbook of the week: Respectfully, I have learned more from the The Condiment Book by Condiment Claire than I ever learned at school and I’ve almost read it cover to cover.
Kitchen piece of the week: Irish linen dish cloths from Borough Kitchen - big chef energy.
Brown butter, vanilla bean + sage gnocchi
Bowls of beige food supremacy! <3
Is brown butter and sage overdone? Yeah, maybe. But bringing vanilla bean into this dish elevates it to a whole other level. I’ve made brown butter sage gnocchi more times than I can count - but this version hit so different and I can’t stop dreaming about it!
Ingredients:
Half a vanilla pod
1 small bunch of sage
60g salted butter
250g fresh gnocchi
1 tbsp hazelnuts - crushed
Freshly grated parmigiano reggiano
How to:
Boil salted water in a pot.
While your water boils, prep all of your ingredients.
Halve your vanilla pod with a sharp knife (save the other half to make vanilla sugar!)
Wash and de-stem your sage.
Crush and roughly chop your hazelnuts.
Over medium - low heat, start melting your butter in a pan + add your sage and halved vanilla pod to the pan.
Start to brown your butter: stirring or swirling often to avoid burning. Your butter will sizzle, bubble and then begin to foam. The milk solids will separate and start to brown at the bottom of your pan. As the foam disappears, you’ll start to see golden flecks and smell a toasty, caramelised nutty aroma, and you’ll also start to see tiny little vanilla beans separating from their pod. This browning process should take about 5 minutes.
At this point, take your sauce off the heat and drop your gnocchi into the boiling salted water.
When your gnocchi start to float, immediately transfer them to your brown butter vanilla sauce and put back over heat for 30 seconds, tossing to coat the gnocchi.
Plate your gnocchi, drizzling the sauce and crispy sage over them. Top with your crushed hazelnuts, lots of freshly grated parmesan, and garnish with the buttery vanilla pod.
Please try and LMK what you think!