The sweet taste of chestnuts is as much a part of autumn as fresh mushrooms. Fried with luganega, a sausage specialty from northern Italy, hey give the potato-chestnut gnocchi the right kick.
5 from 4 votes
Prep Time 20 minutesmins
Cook Time 15 minutesmins
Total Time 35 minutesmins
Course gnocchi, Main Course, main dish
Cuisine Italy, Lombardy, North Italy
Servings 4servings
Calories 372kcal
Ingredients
For the gnocchi
300gpotatoesnot new potatoes, boiled and peeled
60gpotato starch
40gchestnut flour
2 small eggsyolks
1pinchsalt
1pinchnutmegoptional
For the sauce
200gfreshmixed mushrooms (e. g. porcini, parasol, king oyster, chanterelle)
100gsausagecoarse raw sausage
1teaspoonolive oilextra virgin
1pinchsalt
1pinchpepper
2 leavessagefresh
100g cheese grana or Parmesan
Instructions
For the gnocchi, mash the still hot potatoes on a large wooden chopping board. Add a little salt and allow to cool. Mix the chestnut flour and potato starch and knead into the mashed potatoes with the egg yolk. Season the dough with salt and nutmeg.
Divide the dough into 4 portions and roll each into long finger-thick sticks. Cut into 2 cm thick gnocchi with a knife. You can roll the gnocchi on a rigagnocchi (gnocchi board) or over a fork to create the ridges. The gnocchi can better absorb the sauce when they have grooves.
In a large pot, bring water to the boil, add salt. In the meantime, fry the sausage in a little oil. Add the cleaned, sliced mushrooms and fry for a few minutes until cooked. Be careful, though, if you fry mushrooms for too long, they can become rubbery.
Let the gnocchi simmer in the boiling water. As soon as they float to the surface, lift them out with a slotted spoon and add them to the pan with the sauce. Add sage leaves and mix the gnocchi again thoroughly in the hot pan/sauce. If the gnocchi seem too dry, ladle in a little cooking water. Season with pepper and salt, if desired, and serve with grated grana or Parmesan cheese.
Notes
You will find raw, Mediterranean-spiced sausages at Italian delicatessens. Nowadays, well-stocked supermarkets also stock a variety of salsicce (usually vacuum-packed and thus with a longer shelf life) or ask your butcher for another similar type of sausage