Ingredients

(Makes enough for 2)

Gnocchi

1 cup ricotta cheese

1 egg

1 egg yolk

1/2 tsp salt

1/2 cup finely grated Parmesan cheese

3/4-1 cup flour (depending on the size of your eggs and ricotta moisture)

Sauce & Bake

2 cloves garlic, thinly sliced

A small handful of basil leaves

400ml tomato passata

water to rinse out tomato passata can - about half full)

200g fresh mozzarella cheese, roughly torn

Serve With

Lots of grated Parmesan cheese

Lots of freshly picked basil

Lots of good quality olive oil

Prep It

Preheat oven to 200°c.

Bring a medium pot 3/4 full of heavily salted water to the boil. It should taste almost like the ocean.

Place ricotta, egg, salt and Parmesan in a medium bowl and mix well with a whisk or fork. Add flour and swap your mixing utensil to a spatula. Fold in the flour, until just combined to form a dough. If it seems too sticky perhaps your eggs were too big or ricotta too wet. That’s ok just add flour a little at a time, until you get a workable dough.

Get a tray out and lightly flour it.

Lightly flour your bench and tip your dough out. Cut it into 4 pieces and roll each piece into a long sausage shape about 2cm thick. Once they are all rolled out you can cut them into 1cm thick pieces. Transfer gnocchi to your floured tray with a fish slice and set aside for cooking.

Cook It

Heat a really good drizzle of olive oil in a oven-proof fry-pan on medium heat (no oven-proof fry-pan? no worries you can switch the mixture to a baking dish later) add garlic and basil and cook for about 30 seconds, until golden. Add tomato passata. Fill passata jar half way with water give it a good shake and add that to the pan too along with a good pinch of salt. Bring to a simmer and cook for 15 minutes.

Carefully pour or fish slice your gnocchi into the boiling water and cook for about 2 minutes, or until the gnocchi floats to the surface of the pot.

Transfer straight to the cooked sauce, stir and sprinkle over mozzarella cheese. Bake in oven for 10 minutes, until cheese is gooey and that sauce is bubbl’n.

Eat It

With a tone of grated Parm, basil and olive oil of course!!!