A Dinner to Dye For!

Gnocchetti Sardi con Spinaci di Amarant

Sardinian Gnocchi with Amaranth-Spinach

So this was my second dish using the Amaranth spinach and the most fun to date as the lady that sold it to me on the market told me "whatever you cook it with will turn red"... which of course HAD to be tested!

I was originally planning on doing a risotto dish, but opted for the gnocchi instead as I figured they would be good to also eat cold as a pasta salad during these hot Summer days... only of course they were so delicious that I ate them up whilst they were hot anyway!

I kept the method here very basic- pasta dishes are never that much work anyway! I boiled the gnocchi for 8 minutes, according to the instructions on the packaging, and in the meantime, washed and chopped the spinach. I cut the stalks off and chopped those separately- and dropped them into the water along with the gnocchi as they were rather robust and would have needed a little more cooking than the tender leaves.

Whilst the gnocchi were doing their thing, in a frying pan, I sautéed some finely chopped garlic in a splash of olive oil until it was slightly brown, then turned off the heat and added the finely chopped spinach.

When the gnocchi were ready, I drained them, but not too thoroughly and transferred them to the frying pan. I stirred them into the spinach and turned up the heat- and sure enough, as the spinach cooked, it did turn the pasta pink!

I grated it with nutmeg, added a little olive oil and served it up straight away! A nice sprinkle of freshly grated salted ricotta cheese and a couple of decorative spinach leaves did the trick as far as garnishing was concerned... but I was of course more concerned with eating... as it did indeed taste mighty fine!