Big tip for my younger self – be at peace with buying home-made gnocchi at the market. World’s best shortcut (apart from puff pastry) when you want something fast. (It also freezes well, and cooks from frozen.)

And if you manage to find a friendly quality seller, then making creamy lemon gnocchi with chicken is a 15-minute job, because I always have a little parsley, or some bacon, or a piece of chicken in the fridge.

But if you’re a purist, and want to make your own gnocchi, here’s the legendary Gennaro Contaldo on how to do it (watch the auto captions – they don’t quite know what to do with his lovely Italian accent 😂). He uses 1kg potato, 2 egg yolks (egg white hardens the dough), 100g double 00 flour, salt and pepper.

Now, adding chicken and bacon is handy if you have a few big eaters. But if you don’t want your creamy lemon gnocchi, with chicken AT ALL, you can make it vegetarian by adding cooked beans or asparagus to the sauce before serving. The other thing with this sauce is there is some left over for mopping up with bread if that’s your bag. The creamy lemon sauce is adaptable. Add it to spaghetti, linguini, add it to anything and that thing will be tasty.

Gennaro Contaldo is a big champion for using what you find in the fridge. “I really, really press everyone to learn how to cook, because once you’ve learned how to cook, you can go around and use whatever you find in the house.”

And if you like the thought of a 15-minute job (my favourite kind of work), here’s another version of a pasta dish with an easy creamy sauce, a little lemon, sausage, and another pantry staple – tomato paste.

“The sea was my swimming pool, and the mountains were my back garden.”
-Gennaro Contaldo

Ingredients

600 g homemade gnocchi (150 g per person) from your smiling gnocchi seller
1 cup thickened cream
1 cup chicken stock (or vegetable if you want vegetarian)
1 lemon, juice and zest
¾ cup parmesan, grated
1 chicken breast (replace with cooked asparagus, beans for vegetarian)
3 rashers middle bacon, crisped (omit for vegetarian)
salt, pepper, parsley
½ cup frozen peas, optional

Instructions

Fry the chicken breast in a little oil in pan until done. Set aside. Put salted water on to boil for gnocchi.
Wipe out the pan and add cream, stock and zest of one lemon. Bring to medium heat and simmer. Then add lemon juice and parmesan, stirring, and keep stirring with wooden spoon for about five minutes. Sauce will reduce a little. If you prefer a thicker sauce, add a little more parmesan at this point.
If you'd like some greens, add the peas into the sauce now.
Add gnocchi to salted boiling water. The second they start to rise, take them out of the boiling water carefully with a slatted spoon and place them into the cream/stock mix in the fry pan, where they will finish cooking for a further minute.
Carefully spoon gnocchi and sauce between bowls. Slice chicken and put on top. Season. Garnish with bacon and parsley.

Hello!

Creamy Lemon Gnocchi with Chicken