Happy French Friday! This week’s recipe is one of those from the book that I never really noticed. I just kind of glossed over it. But then I read it, and it sounded good! I think the problem is the name: Storzapretis. That doesn’t mean anything to me. The subtitle has more meaning: Corsican Spinach and Mint Gnocchi. That sounds more like something I can get into!
Storzapretis is a ricotta-based gnocchi from the island of Corsica. It has a nice amount of spinach, as well as Gruyere and mint. It is baked in a tomato sauce of your choosing (I used homemade roasted tomato sauce made from garden tomatoes that I had in the freezer).
It turns out this was a tricky one to make. There was much discussion about how to best make this without having the gnocchi fall apart to bits while cooking. My first attempt was very successful and I got a little cocky. My second attempt was a disaster, and my third attempt was another success. Here’s how it all went down:
1) The night I mixed up and formed the gnocchi, I cooked up half of them as directed after freezing them for half an hour to firm them up a bit. I boiled them at a very low simmer and then they were baked with the tomato sauce with cheese sprinkled on top. No gnocchi disintegrated, and they were delicious! I took no pictures.
2) I had left the remaining gnocchi in the freezer over night. The next day for lunch, the plan was to cook half the leftovers for the purposes of taking photos in natural light. I plopped the frozen gnocchi into the lightly simmering water (Dorie said we could cook from frozen). They disintegrated! Only a couple of them stayed in any shape mildly resembling gnocchi, and they were very soft and misshapen. Uh oh!
3) Several Doristas had tried skipping the simmering step, and just baked the raw gnocchi in the tomato sauce. I tried this with the rest of the leftovers – I had to get a photo! Mine baked for quite a bit longer than directed since they were frozen, but it worked! A delicious lunch and some beautiful photos. Whew!
My conclusion after all this, is that the Storzapretis are delicious to eat, but persnickety to make. I wouldn’t make this for company unless I was sure I had perfected my technique.
If you would like to see how others fared, check it out here.
Have a great weekend!
From Scratch 
This was one I hadn’t ever heard of, either. They were a lot of work to make, but I think they are a good candidate for making and freezing, then pulling out when you want them. Once they’re in the freezer, they become an easy weeknight meal (especially if you skip the poach). Yours look beautiful! And I admire your perseverance in getting a good photo.
YES re cooking for company with these. Or have a good backup plan. I also agree about the name. For whatever reason, even the name sounds a bit fussy to me. Glad they mostly worked out for you all!
I like the experimental nature of your results this week 🙂
Baking them straight from the freezer did make these less aggravating/
Looks great!
They look wonderful and I agree, having them in the freezer makes it easy for a quick dinner. Happy Thanksgiving.
It really only seems that the falling apart happened to just a few of us… myself included. I think it was the rapid boiling. I don’t know if you did the same thing. Not sure if I will make these again but simmering water seems to be key for keeping these together.
You had your own America’s Test Kitchen going at your house on this one. I appreciate your trial and error and conclusions. Lots of work, but some streamlining possible. Delicious, right? Have a happy Thanksgiving, Karen!
I feel like I’ve looked through the book a million times, and yet I’ve had the same experience a few times of a recipe popping up which I’ve never noticed before. I’m sure there will be a few more surprises in store before we finish the book off:-)
Persnickety is a good word. My husband enjoyed them very much but I don’t know if I want to make them again. I have had those kinds of issues with picture taking too. Happy Thanksgiving.
I’ll have to try cooking them pretty much right away after they are formed. How did your daughter’s Caribbean themed birthday turn out? I’m curious!
can these be shaped by hand? Would that make it less persnickety? they look great either way!!