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Pear and Gorgonzola Gnocchi

I just had to show how to make this pear and gorgonzola gnocchi recipe. It all comes from a trip we made to Rome a number of years ago. After eating for our first night in the more tourist heavy center we were left a bit flat but popped south of the river on our second to find this little restaurant that made up for the first night and then some. My wife had this lovely pear and gorgonzola pizza and I had a great gnocchi dish with pancetta and onions. When her birthday came round this year I tried to combine those two dishes to give us a memory of that night in Rome and so this was born.

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That is probably the biggest thing I like about home cooking, I can try to bring memories in to the food I make. It just makes what would be a nice dish normally into something truly special.

Ingredients

serves 2

  • 2 conference pears (or other sweet)

  • 150g Gorgonzola

  • 6 rashers smoked pancetta (or bacon)

  • 1 red onion

  • 500g gnocchi

  • 4 tbsp olive oil

  • salt and pepper

Method

Start by topping and tailing the onion then slice in half from root to tip and quarter each half so you end up with nice triangular chunks of onion. Put these in a roasting dish, season with a good pinch of salt and pepper and toss in 2 tbsp of the olive oil. These go in the oven for 15 minutes at 190c (375f).

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Whilst the onions are doing core and cut the pears into good sized chunks, then slice the pancetta rashers into 1 cm strips.

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When the onions have had their 15 mins they should have started to blacken at the edges so now just add the pears and pancetta to the dish then pop it all back in the oven for 20 mins more.

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When you have about 10 mins to go it's time to cook the gnocchi. Drop them in a pan of boiling water for a minute or two until they start floating to the top. Then drain and leave in the open pan to steam off a bit. This will dry them out whilst you heat a frying pan with the other 2 tbsp of olive oil. Once the pan is up to temperature throw in the gnocchi and fry for 5-6 minutes until they have a nice golden crust.

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Once that's done it should be time to take the roasting dish of delicious ingredients out of the oven and scatter on 100g of the gorgonzola cheese before returning it to the oven for just 2 minutes to melt that cheese into a sticky mess that will coat all the ingredients beautifully.

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After the cheese has melted around the onions, pears and pancetta remove it from the oven, toss in the gnocchi and mix well.

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Serve in bowls with the extra 50g of gorgonzola crumbled on top

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