5 Minute Food Fix

Packet gnocchi, but make it useful

A message from Simon:

Today’s fix is packet gnocchi. And I want you to not boil it.

I know the packet tells you to boil it. Ignore the packet. The packet does not know your life.

The best thing to do with shelf-stable gnocchi is roast it.

Straight onto a tray. Olive oil. Tomatoes. Garlic. Lemon zest. Olives. Into a hot oven. Done.

What happens is the gnocchi goes golden and a little bit crisp on the outside, but stays soft and chewy inside. Which is frankly much more interesting than boiled gnocchi, which can sometimes have the texture of tiny damp pillows.

This version has cherry tomatoes, olives, bocconcini, lemon zest and basil. Very easy. Very pretty. Very “I have made dinner” for someone who has mostly just tipped things onto a tray.

The lemon zest matters because gnocchi can go a bit beige and heavy. Lemon wakes it up. The bocconcini goes in at the end so it softens, but doesn’t totally vanish. And basil goes on last because cooked basil is a crime.

You can add zucchini, capsicum, eggplant, chilli, rocket, parmesan, leftover roast veg, whatever. This is not a recipe that wants you to go to three shops.

The fix is: roast the gnocchi. Don’t boil it. It’s faster, better and involves one tray, which is spiritually important.

RECIPE: Lemony olive and bocconcini gnocchi traybake

Serves 3–4

Preheat the oven to 220°C.

Tip a 500 g packet of shelf-stable potato gnocchi onto a large baking tray.

Add 250 g halved cherry tomatoes, one sliced zucchini or one chopped red capsicum, half a cup of pitted or torn olives, and two finely sliced garlic cloves.

Add three tablespoons of olive oil, the finely grated zest of one lemon, salt and black pepper, then toss everything together really well.

Spread it out so the gnocchi has space to crisp.

Roast for 20–25 minutes, tossing once, until the gnocchi is golden and the tomatoes have collapsed.

Tear over 150 g bocconcini and return the tray to the oven for 3–5 minutes, just until the cheese softens.

Finish with a handful of basil leaves, more lemon zest if you like, and chilli flakes or parmesan if you want them.

Serve straight from the tray and feel smug about the lack of washing up.

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Impressing friends with one's cooking skills is truly one of life's joys. Yumi has found a new way that is super easy and you probably have 90% of the ingredients already.

BELINDA JEFFEREY's CHEESE BISCUITS

Combine all the dry ingredients: 300g plain flour, 50g Self-raising flour and a teaspoon of salt. Add in 2tsp mild chilli flakes.

Mix well in the food processor.

Add 40g freshly grated parmesan and a whole grated block of Mersey Valley (250g).

Add 250g cold, cubed butter, whizz the mixture. It will look crumbly and quite dry. While it's whizzing, add in the juice of 1 lemon. It will come together.

Halve the dough. Fashion each half into logs about the width (girth?) of a 50c piece. Wrap in baking paper and chill until needed.

When you're ready to cook them, pre-heat to oven to 180C. Slice 4-5mm pieces off the log and spread them out on a baking tray. Top with sesame seeds or nigella seeds and bake for about 14 minutes. Serve with beverages and olives!

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Yumi organised an adult playdate for HERSELF with a friend for some cooking fun.

It didn't work out exactly to plan but they *did* get to make this amazing gnocchi from Ottolenghi's 'SIMPLE'.

You can find a full version of it in this article - and Simon's recommendation is that you roast up a sweet tomato sauce alongside the gnocchi and then serve with a rocket salad lightly dressed with lemon juice and good quality olive oil.

And here is the SURVEY that we'd like you to please fill out!

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It's time to fancy up your humble piece of fried salmon with a recipe from a cookbook that's a couple of years old but Yumi dusted it off and has been cooking from it quite a bit in the past weeks. It's - OTTOLENGHI's 'SIMPLE'.

Simon has good news if you're a fan of the cookbook and its author...

And you can find the salsa and salmon recipe here.

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Yumi is threatening to host a dog re-naming ceremony to honor Norweigan striker, community boyfriend and everyone's emotional support Viking, Erling Haaland (it's not her hound so technically NO, and also, just no.)

Simon, meanwhile, has been impressing adults with this really easy-to-nail and incredibly yummy Marmalade Self-Saucing Pudding,

RECIPE: Marmalade self-saucing pudding

Serves 4–6

Preheat the oven to 180°C and grease a medium baking dish.

In a bowl, mix one cup of self-raising flour, half a cup of caster sugar and a pinch of salt.

In another bowl, whisk 60 g melted butter with half a cup of milk, one egg, one teaspoon of vanilla and a third of a cup of orange marmalade.

Combine the wet and dry ingredients, then scrape the batter into the baking dish.

For the sauce, stir a third of a cup of brown sugar and two tablespoons of marmalade into one and a half cups of boiling water. Add 30 g butter and stir until mostly melted.

Carefully pour the hot liquid over the back of a spoon onto the pudding batter. It will look wrong. That is fine.

Bake for 30–35 minutes, until the top is golden and spongey and the sauce is bubbling underneath.

Rest for 5 minutes, then serve with cream, custard or vanilla ice cream.

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Yumi and Simon have been watching the World Cup football and it's been both fun and heartbreaking. If you're feeling bitter about Australia (or Japan, or Korea, Ghana, Canada etc etc), maybe you can enjoy the bitter feeling with the perfect winter salad.

Crunchy Bitter Winter Radicchio Salad

Toast a half cup walnuts in a dry frypan.

Set aside.

Tear apart a head of radicchio lettuce. Finely slice a small fennel bulb.

Peel two whole oranges and slice into neat discs. Retain any lost juice then add to it: 2tbs olive oil, 1tbs red wine vinegar, 1tsp mustard and 1/2tsp honey. Adjust to taste.

Toss the dressing through the radicchio leaves and fennel. Gently pass through the orange slices, a handful of chopped green olives.

Top with toasted walnuts and finish with some shaved parmesan or a crumble of fennel.

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ARE ALL RICOTTAS CREATED EQUAL?

It's a question to kick off today's episode.

Yumi has also been entertaining one of her besties, and whenever she comes to visit that means it's time to revisit the legendary Spanish dessert Burnt Basque Cheesecake. I've been making this for quite a while using Nagi's recipe, but after a visit to unmissable Redfern eaterie, Flyover Fritterie, I was inspired to try adding saffron, rosewater and cardamom.

To make it, follow the directions from Nagi's recipe but use these quantities:

500g ricotta

2 x blocks of cream cheese

250-300g of caster sugar*

a healthy fat pinch of saffron threads, bloomed in 2tbs of warmed rosewater

about 30 cardamom pods, smashed open, seeds removed then seeds run through the spice grinder (fibrous pods composted).

310g Greek yoghurt

30g custard powder

a squeeze of vanilla paste

*I have made this twice - once using 250g sugar, once using 300g sugar - it was freakin delicious both times so do what you like.

PS. If you want to help our show to grow and gather info about how to improve, please do us a favour and fill in this survey? Should only take you a couple of minutes and we'd be so grateful!

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ORZO TRAY BAKE WITH FETTA AND PEPPERS

Turn oven on to 220C.

Quarter 4 peeled red onions, one whole chilli, one roughly chopped red pepper, and split a head of garlic across the hemisphere of the bulb.

Drizzle with olive oil then roast for 20mins until the onions are cooked and the veg are starting to char.

Add in a tin of cherry tomatoes, a tsp of nigella seeds and a tsp of crushed coriander seeds.

Cook for 20 more mins, squash the tomatoes now on the back of a spoon, squish out the garlic and add it back to the pan with 800ml water, 250g orzo, mix and then dot with a whole packet of fetta (200g) that you crumble over. Cook for 15 mins until the orzo is cooked.

Top with sprinkled green herbs like parsley, dill or fresh coriander.

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Simon and Yumi belly-laugh over some food-related nonsense and it's contagious, so listen if you need to get some sunshine today. Yumi also shares a bit about what happened at her recent (and very fancy) birthday lunch.

And maybe you also need ...chocolate cake? The quite legendary CHOCOLATE CAKE recipe from the wonderful Helen Goh can be found here.

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Yumi and Simon haven't seen much of each other recently so have much to catch up on, including what's going on with Yumi's extremely adoring foster dog, a fantastic Japanese snack that her kids LOVE, and what to do with that leftover chilli oil you've had cluttering your pantry ever since the Great Chilli Crisp Oil Fad of 2014...!

If you want to buy the crunchy "osembe" crackers, they look like this. They're not available at all Asian grocers and the lesser imitations are distinctly LESSER - so make sure they're Japanese and make sure they're Shoyu flavoured. (Sometimes they also come with beans baked through the crackers - these are also excellent and delicious but my kids refuse them.)

To batch-cook eggplant for use in baguettes or a black bean ragu, dice 2-3 eggplants into 1cm dice, preheat a pan, warm through your chilli oil and fry up the eggplant. Setting a timer can help if you struggle to trust when the eggplant is done: You'll need at least 10 good minutes of cook time.

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