Homemade Kale Gnocchi

For the Gnocchi

Preheat the oven to 170C fan, Cover the base of a roasting tin with a few handfuls of rock salt

Prick the potatoes all over with a fork and lay straight onto the salt in the tray

Bake until completely soft through, this may take about an hour

While the potatoes are baking, make the pesto. (recipe below)

Once the potatoes are cooked, allow to cool slightly before peeling away the skin, and setting the cooked potato in a bowl to the side

Use a potato ricer or fine sieve to create a very smooth mash, this is best done while the potatoes are still hot

Clean down and dry a kitchen surface before sprinkling 250g of the flour and the fine sea salt directly onto the surface

Tip the mashed potatoes onto the flour, create a dip in the centre for the eggs and begin to mix together using your hands

Add more flour if you need but stop as soon as the dough is smooth and soft

Divide the mix equally into four with a knife. Roll out each piece of dough into a long sausage and cut into small pieces, the shape doesn’t matter, as long as they are all a similar size so that they cook evenly

Bring a large pan and a small pan up to the boil, season both pans of water heavily with sea salt

Blanch the Kale leaves in the small pan and drop the gnocchi into the other, lift out carefully when the gnocchi rises to the surface of the water

If pan frying, cool the gnocchi down in iced water, heat up a non-stick pan and fry in a little oil or butter until golden. If not pan frying, tip the gnocchi straight into a bowl from the hot water, toss in the pesto and kale leaves and check the seasoning

For the Pesto

Finely chop the kale stems and add to a blender with all other ingredients except the oil

Blend until pesto consistency, with texture, pouring the oil in slowly as you blend

Set aside in the fridge until you need to use it