Quince and Chestnut Ragout with homemade sage Gnocchi

Hey there!

 

It is Sunday. Already. This means half of my autumn holiday is over and I should start thinking about school again, goodness I’ve only got another 259 days left until I’ll dive into the real world. Who knows what I’ll be doing then.

Besides feeling sorry for myself for having to go back to school in a little over a week I have also been creating a new recipe today. It is another kind of pasta dish, this time with homemade Gnocchi, sound good, am I right?

Those lovely homemade gnocchi were served accompanied by a delicious quince and chestnut ragout. While browsing through some cooking magazines quince recipes kept appearing in front of me hence I decided I would have to create my very own. I have never actually eaten quince prepared in a different manner than in form of quince jelly on a piece of bread. When I realised that this fruit, which tastes absolutely disgusting raw, but divine when having been cooked can be used in savoury meals I was so stunned and driven to try it out myself.

I think I mentioned my love to chestnuts in a previous post, so I’m not going to bore you with that again. But this exact adoration got me to include chestnuts in today’s dinner. What I came up with was a delicious quince and chestnut ragout served over homemade sage gnocchi.

This was truly divine and not only I but also my host sister and my mother couldn’t resist going for seconds and even thirds. I think clear pans and plates just tell a cook everything, that’s just what you wish for when you’re cooking for your family.

 

The ragout certainly didn’t only consist of chestnuts and quince. Additionally to the stars of today’s meal I also added half a celery root plus a few sage leaves, bay leaves and cloves to give some flavour to the dish. Before serving it I realised that the dish was missing some sweetness, that’s why I then drizzled some agave syrup into the ragout.

To top it of I roasted some walnuts from our own tree, which I then distributed on top of the Gnocchi before serving them. And obviously since we were having pasta we all added some shavings of Parmesan prior to enjoying this successful creation, which gave this dish its perfect finishing touch.

I loved the combination of the sweet quince and chestnut in combination with the flavour added by the bay leaves and the cloves. I just think this is a perfect vegetarian autumn meal. It includes all those typical autumn flavours in a simple pasta dish. If you are feeling to lazy to make your own gnocchi you could use normal pasta or store bought gnocchi or you could even use spätzle, this I might try out the next time I make this, I quite fancy this idea…

 

 

 

Well let’s stay with this recipe for now and not wander of to what I am cooking next, so there you have it.

 

Ingredients

 

• 2 big Onions or half of Spanish onion
• 2 cloves of garlic
• ½ celery root
• 1 big quince
• 250g frozen chestnuts
• 1dl red wine
• water
• 2tbs agave syrup
• 2 bay leaves
• 5 sage leaves
• 3 cloves
• salt
• pepper
• 1tbs canola oil
• a few walnuts
• Parmesan

 

1. First, let’s do some knife work. Chop up your garlic, the onion and the sage. Cut the quince in thin slices and the celery root into little cubes
2. Heat up the oil in a pan; add the celery cubes, garlic, sage, onion as well as the bay leaves and the cloves. Over a medium high heat continuously stir the mixture and let the onion and celery soften and brown slightly.
3. When the celery and the onion have browned and softened lower the temperature to medium low and add the quince, 2 dl of water and around 1 dl or red wine. Cover your ragout with a lid and let it cook for 15 minutes.
4. After 15 minutes add 250g of chestnuts and continue cooking for another 20 minutes. At around that time you can start to boil some water for whatever kind of pasta you have chosen, if you went for the homemade gnocchi twenty minutes will be just the right time to cook the whole batch
5. Before serving it add 2tbs of agave syrup and season with pepper and salt to taste

Voila, there’s you’re delicious quince and chestnut ragout. Which is perfectly served over some homemade sage gnocchi, for which I will give you the recipe right here.

 

Ingredients

 

• 600g boiled potatoes
• 1 egg
• 100-200g whole-wheat flour
• 10 sage leaves
• salt

 

1. Mash the boiled potatoes
2. Finely chop up the sage leaves then add them to the mashed potato together with the other ingredients. For the flour I recommend starting at 100 g and then adding more and more until your dough sticks together and can be shaped into 2 cm wide logs.
3. When you rolled all your dough into logs cut it into 1 cm pieces.
4. Boil the gnocchi in some salted water, you can tell if that they’re done when they appear on the water surface

 

Voila, now you’ve got everything you need for the delicious dinner I ate today. Homemade gnocchi with a divine quince and chestnut ragout, now sprinkle some walnuts on top and add a few shavings of Parmesan, now that’s what I call an amazingly delicious autumn meal.

 

 

Bisous

Fanny, the foodie