italian food – Clinical Alimentary

I have been thinking about Halloween recipes this weekend – this is likely to be the last one I post this year. I adore gnocchi but I do find it very filling. It is a dish for a day where you need something satisfying and tasty. The day has been nothing but grey sky and drizzle so it is very apt to make a starchy dish and pumpkin is a seasonal alternative to potato. Enjoy!

Ingredients

1 Medium pumpkin – mine gave 600g flesh
Spray oil
300g maize or cornflour
1 Egg
Seasoning
25g butter
10-12 sage leaves
30g Grated parmesan

Method

Slice the pumpkin and spray with oil and roast in the oven till soft.
Leave the slices till cooled.
Remove the skin from the flesh, season.
Add to a blender with the egg and enough flour to bind the mix.
The mix is slightly soft but can be weighed into 10g portions and rolled, then flattened with a fork.
Heat a large pan with boiling water add seasoning and drop in the gnocchi – don’t add to many at once – they will float (Halloween reference to IT here) when ready.
You might have to change the water if it becomes too starchy.
Dry well on kitchen paper.
Chop the sage, melt the butter in a pan and add the gnocchi.
Serve and sprinkle with parmesan cheese.
Serves 6.

I have purchased some Fodmapped sauces and soups to try, so I thought I would give you the low down. I bought them through the IBS Network website so that they would benefit from the purchase – were you aware that if you buy a starter pack you get membership covered for 1 year? The sauce was really tasty and gave an added advantage to tomato pasta sauces as you could really pick out the flavour of the aubergine – one of my favourite vegetables. Shortlisted for the Free From Food Awards I would say they are a great contender and tremendous to see a low fodmap product being reviewed. Any drawbacks? Yes, the price – the sauces are expensive compared to other sauces but they are onion and garlic free, which most ready made sauces (except plain passata and some pure tomato based pasta sauces) are not. Sometimes following the low fodmap diet can mean dry food unless you make your own stocks and sauces, you could argue that this needs to be done, but not everyone has the time. You could make a very simple roasted vegetable sauce yourself, however if time pushed these products are certainly a consideration. Putting additional pressures on busy lifestyles by making everything from scratch is sometimes unhelpful to symptoms. The packet gave a serving for 2 people. I have made an Italian dish, a comforting winter recipe, and in the process increased the portion size to 4!

Ingredients

500g lean minced beef

1 egg

100g gluten free breadcrumbs

10g of basil leaves

10g oregano

1 packet of Fodmap Easy roasted vegetable pasta sauce

200g of dry polenta

60g parmesan

Seasoning

Method

Place the mince in a bowl and add chopped herbs, egg and breadcrumbs and some seasoning, mix well. Roll into even sized meatballs – I made about 14 from the full mix. Set them aside.

Fry the meatballs in a dry non stick frying pan till browned.

Add the meatballs to a casserole dish with the sauce mix and 300mls of water. Place in an oven at gas mark 5 or 190 degrees C. Cook for 1 hour.

Using the directions on the packet for 200g of polenta add water to a pan and bring to the boil and pour in the polenta whilst stirring. Add extra liquid if needed to form a thick sauce, add parmesan (retain a small amount for serving) and seasoning (not much salt needed here!) to taste.

Serve

Serves 4 for a main meal.