Gnocchi with bacon, pumpkin and asparagus

This seasonal dish of gnocchi with bacon, pumpkin and asparagus, cooked into a creamy sauce, comes from Northeastern Italy, close to the Slovenian border. As actually cold weather hits London for the first time this season, its autumnal flavours seem apt. Paired with a tasty winter beetroot salad, it's filling, warming and easy to make.

On the frontier

This seasonal dish of gnocchi with bacon, pumpkin and asparagus, cooked with cream, is not one from my father's extensive archive of Italian recipes gathered during his travels, but one I came across some years ago whilst on my own travels to Gorizia. I was there to visit the Castello di Gorzia. From the battlements of the castle you can actually see over the Slovenian border, one of the reasons I was there, a long story for another time and place...

Nonetheless, in this unique and rather overlooked patch of Italy, the melting pot of cultures is tangible: Balkan culture, the Hapsburg Empire and the Venetians, to name a few. It comes out in the food culture as much as the architecture. It was winter and cold when I was there. I sought shelter and dinner in an unassuming little trattoria. After a couple of days, I had got used to seeing decidedly Austrian schnitzel or Balkan-style sausages on menus that offered more hearty meat dishes than in other parts of Italy alongside the more familiar offer of pastas. But, I was really surprised to see a gnocchi dish on the menu featuring asparagus in Italy in winter. After all, Italy is famously seasonal.

The very pleasant man who ran the place, together with his wife, the chef, explained. This autumnal dish doesn't use fresh asparagus, but young green asparagus that has been bottled in oil, with lemon and garlic at the very start of the season for use during cold months, considered something of a delicacy locally.

The dish was utterly delicious. One of the notable things was the cured meat—I'm calling it "bacon" because the closest thing in the UK I can think of is thick-cut cured back bacon, the type with quite a lot of fat on it, the type I recommend using. Whatever the local version was, and I have totally forgotten what it was called, it had far more of a Germanic or Balkan character than a typically Italian one. A bit like Brunswick or Schwarzwälder (Black Forest) hams, the fat ratio was similar, but you definitely wouldn't want to eat it without cooking it.

As I learned from my father, a lot of praise and a little charm goes a long way. The chef was singing like a canary after she closed the kitchen and I shared a nightcap with her and her husband, a habit I advise any traveller wanting to return home with good recipes to adopt. As she modestly pointed out, it is actually a fairly simple dish to cook as long as you pay attention to a few important details.

Attention to details

The chef—she was called Chiara—told me that the sauce was served interchangeably with gnocchi or ribbon pastas, such as tagliatelle, in the region. I have since tried both many times and both are equally delicious, so I can understand the procrastination in locking down a singular "official" local tradition. But, in celebration of discovering it for the first time, I'm going with the gnocchi tonight.

The elephant in the room, however, is the bottled green asparagus. There have even been years when I have remembered to make it in a timely fashion during the late spring, the memory of how delicious it was triggered by some young asparagus on a market. But, like planting bulbs for the next spring, it's easy to forget when your mind is on other things. Furthermore, I have only ever come across green asparagus bottled in this manner very rarely in Italian delis elsewhere in Europe. And some of them were in Slovenia. Ho hum...

However, I have developed a viable hack. As long as you do it at least 24 hours (ideally 48) before you cook the dish, it works as a reasonable facsimile in what is a fairly rich sauce. Simply steam the asparagus. While still warm, place in a dish with a sealable lid, dress in olive oil and lemon juice (of half a lemon), mixing it in. Pop in a bruised clove of garlic and store, sealed, in the fridge until about 20mins before you cook the sauce.

As far as the pumpkin goes, I never got around to asking specifically. But I have learned through experience that it should be a pumpkin with a fairly firm, dense flesh. My current favourite is a pumpkin with a dark green mottled shell, often called Japanese pumpkin, because of where it originated, though it's now found all over the world. It's also called Kent pumpkin, especially in Australia—no idea why. This is particularly confusing if you live in London because it doesn't necessarily have any connection with the neighbouring county, the "garden of England ", Kent, where a lot of London's fresh market veggies are grown. But, any pumpkin on the firm (versus watery) end of the spectrum will work.

This version is for 2 to 3 diners. The sauce can certainly feed 3 diners. Just add the relevant quantity of gnocchi as needed. For larger groups, scale up the sauce ingredients.

3 top tips to get this recipe right:

• Parboiling the pumpkin is essential. It ensures that the flesh remains "fluffy" during the roasting process, even though the outer edges will slightly caramelise. You want this caramel flavour for the sauce, but you also want to make sure the sauce ingredients are not too chewy. Similarly, re-using the water in which the pumpkin is parboiled to cook the gnocchi or pasta cooks in that hint of pumpkin to the whole dish.

• This dish uses fresh oregano, which has a subtler flavour than dried. If you only have dried oregano available, use less of it e.g. about three quarters of a teaspoon.

• It may seem like a bit of a palaver to first cook the bacon in a separate pan from the one in which you cook the sauce, but it really makes a difference. Essentially you transfer all the "good bits" without the grittier aspects from pre-cooking the bacon you don't want to stick when pulling off your final creamy sauce.

Shopping list

for the gnocchi with bacon, pumpkin and asparagus

• Gnocchi, approx. 200 to 220g per diner

• Approx. 200g thin green asparagus (sprue); cooked and dressed (see above)

• Firm pumpkin; a large slice per diner; skin on; seeds and sinews removed

• Approx. 200g thick-cut cured back bacon; sliced, fat and rind on. (or comparable)

• 2 small red onions (or brown); diced

• 4 cloves of smoked garlic, (normal is fine); finely chopped (not grated or crushed)

• Approx. 6 tbspns virgin olive oil

• The juice and pulp of 1 fresh lemon

• Approx., 4 stems of fresh oregano; leaves stripped from stems and washed

• A generous clutch of fresh parsley; chopped

• 125ml dry white wine

• 150ml double cream

• salt and pepper to taste

• Parmesan or Grana Padano cheese at table (optional)

for the winter beetroot salad

• 5 small beetroot; cooked and sliced into batons

• 3 shallots; sliced

• A little parsley; roughly chopped

• A handful of raw walnut halves; roughly broken

• 1tbspn of walnut oil

• 2tspns of balsamic vinegar

• 1tspn of creamed horseradish

• salt and pepper to taste

  
  
  
  

Cooking Method

the gnocchi with bacon, pumpkin and asparagus

1. Parboil the pumpkin for 6mins in boiling salted water. Remove from the pot with tongs or a sieve spoon. Keep the water, covered, in the same pot. You'll later cook the gnocchi in it. You can actually do this some time before you plan to cook the sauce

2. Transfer the drained pumpkin to an ovenproof dish (I prefer ceramic to metal) and baste with a little olive oil. Season with salt and pepper and cook in a preheated oven at 180°C, turning occasionally, re-basting and re-seasoning. You should allow at least 40mins for the pumpkin to cook optimally in this way. Yes, you can do it faster on a higher temperature, but it tends to become overly dry or too caramelised

3. When the pumpkin is optimally cooked—a fork can pass through it effortlessly and it has started to caramelise at the edges—slice away the skin and cut into large bite-sized pieces. Return to the hot dish, cover and keep warm at a minimal temperature while you prepare the rest of the meal

4. In a frying pan, heat a little olive oil and cook the bacon. When it looks about halfway cooked, add half of the wine. As the wine cooks off, add the smoked garlic, stirring almost continuously so that it does not stick or burn. The bacon doesn't need to be crisp, but make sure the fatty parts and rind are well cooked. Once cooked, cover (or keep on a minimal temperature) so that the fats from the bacon remain liquid

5. In another large, deep frying pan, sauté the onions of a low-medium heat in a little olive oil. When they turn "glassy", add the remaining wine and gently cook off. When the onions are fully soft, but not yet brown, add the bacon and all of the juices from the other frying pan, ensuring any "black gritty bits" are not transferred. Increase to a medium heat and sauté together for 4mins before adding half of the chopped parsley and the remaining juice from the lemon. Stir and sauté until the parsley has wilted

6. Add the cream and stir in. Reduce the heat so the cream never boils, merely simmers. Simmer for approx. 3min before adding the fresh oregano leaves. Sauté, stirring regularly, until the oregano has fully wilted. NB: you will know because the aroma will be released

7. Add the asparagus (including the dressing) and stir in. Sauté only long enough for it to become hot

8. Add the pumpkin pieces and gently fold in, careful to not break them up. At this point check the sauce for seasoning and add additional salt and/or pepper as needed

9. While cooking the sauce, bring the pot with the "pumpkin water" back to the boil, adding additional hot water as needed. When boiling vigorously, add your gnocchi. It should cook in two to three minutes—the traditional wisdom is that they're cooked when they all float to the surface. Before draining, add about 3tbspns of the water from the gnocchi pot to the pan with the sauce, which might have become rather thick by now. Drain the gnocchi

10. Add the gnocchi into the pan with the sauce, gently folding them in until the sauce clings on all surfaces. Turn off the heat and rest for a minute.

11. Plate and take to table with the salad. Dress the gnocchi at table with a little parmesan or Grana Padano cheese if desired

the winter beetroot salad

1. Mix all of the main ingredients except the broken walnuts. Season with salt and pepper. Transfer to individual salad bowls or your favoured serving dish

2. Sprinkle over the broken walnuts

3. Mix the dressing of walnut oil, balsamic vinegar and creamed horseradish

4. Dress the salads and take to table

Alternatives

This dish is easily made as a great lactovegetarian dish that I cook often. Simply bypass the bacon, and increase the quantity of chopped onions (which you cook a little longer in all of the wine) and roasted pumpkin.

However, I am very open about my lack of experience of cooking with plant-based cream alternatives, so I don't really have anything to offer in the vegan direction. It's certainly not a dish I would do for dining parties with vegan dietary requirements.

I have never made a pescatarian version of this dish, though I could, in theory, see how it would work with thick pieces of hot smoked salmon. That said, now in my mind's eye, I shall definitely be trying it out with smoked haddock or smoked trout in the future. I would add all of these smoked fish options around the same time as where the asparagus is added in this recipe. In my flavour memory, I can already taste how the smoked haddock version might taste. I shall really have to put it to the test and report back.

Pairings

I'm not going to lie and say that I have bothered a lot with the wine pairings on this dish. As a dish that I have never cooked for "a big occasion", the wine choices have been fairly modest based on what's available. Shoot me if I'm wrong in often having headed in a Barbera direction, whether from Asti or Alba. No, nothing to write home about, but good workhorse wines from not so far from where this dish originates.

But, tapping into the cross-border aspect to the region, I have also traversed into the realm of Austrian wines. Thus far the one I have liked it with most is Judith Beck Zweigelt.

However, I also know this works really well with Californian pinot noirs and South African pinotages (essentially the same thing) that are medium-bodied and the tannins and acidity are not off the scale.

However, given the creaminess, the asparagus and the subtle herbs, don't be afraid of trying it with a white, especially if eaten al fresco in non-winter months. No, no specific memories of particular wines, but all I remember was that a Chablis worked particularly well.