Sardinian carrot gnocchi with minted caramelised cipollini onions and leeks

Name: Sardinian carrot gnocchi with minted caramelised cipollini onions and leeks
Yield: Serve 4
Ingredients: 1 tablespoon caster sugar; 50 g unsalted butter; 1 tablespoon chopped fresh mint; 12 baby leeks, cut into 8 cm lengths; 300 g cipollini onions, peeled; 50 g freshly grated castelli vegetalia (parmesan-style cheese) - plus more for garnishing; 3 free-range egg yolks; 250 g fregola (Sardinian semolina or semolina flour); salt and freshly ground black pepper; 25 g unsalted butter, melted; 400 g carrots, peeled and left whole; 500 ml milk; ground nutmeg

Preparation info

Serve
4

Difficulty
Medium

Appears in

Pure Vegetarian

By Paul Gayler

Published 2006

About

The grain fregola is Sardinia’s version of couscous, and is sometimes flavoured with saffron. Commercial fregola is getting easier to find at Italian grocers and speciality food shops; it also comes in different sizes but use the smaller variety for this dish.

Ingredients

400 g carrots, peeled and left whole
500 ml milk
ground nutmeg
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Sardinia
Pasta
Vegetarian

Method

Place the carrots in a pan, cover with water, bring to the boil and simmer for about 25 minutes until just tender. Drain and slice them into 2 cm thick slices. Transfer to a food processor and blend until smooth. Set aside.

Heat the milk together with salt and a little nutmeg. When it boils, stir in the fregola, little by little, stirring constantly with a whisk so that lumps do not for