I made these with leftover polenta that I didn’t want to throw away. When you think about all the food thrown away each year, it’s just unbelievable. I was reading an article on the French news stating that each French person throws away 79 kg (about 180 lbs) of food per year, which I find shocking, especially when you think about all those who are starving in the world due to no food supply.

Germany has installed public refrigerators outside supermarkets where people can leave leftover food to fight this waste problem. I think more countries should follow Germany.

if you have no leftover, you will have to make polenta first. My polenta was flavored with rosemary and parmesan that I used to make little cakes to grill. I used express polenta, it will save a lot of time (boil water with 1 tbs chopped rosemary, stir well according to package directions, add parmesan at the end).

If you are not using leftover polenta, that your are just making it fresh, it needs to cool down, preferably placed in the refrigerator until it becomes hard.

I used gluten free flour, not because I have a problem with gluten but because I was out of regular flour. So use the flour of your choice, but not a strong flour like quinoa flour, or any other strong flour. You need a mild flour or the gnocchi will taste too strong especially with the rosemary and parmesan in the dough.

Ingredients for 2

For the gnocchi

• 1.5 cups cooked polenta (flavored with parmesan and rosemary)
• 1 egg
• 3/4 cups flour (can be regular or gluten free)

For the sauce

• 2 tbs olive oil
• 3 garlic cloves, crushed
• 1 small box of cherry tomatoes, cut in halves
• 5 mushrooms, sliced
• 4 tbs peas
• salt and pepper
• parmesan
• chives

Preparation

For the sauce

Heat olive oil in a pan. Add garlic and stir to get the flavor out. Add mushrooms and cook at medium heat until just cooked and water evaporated. Add tomatoes, and peas and cook until vegetables are soft but tomatoes not mushy. Adjust with salt and pepper.

For the gnocchi

When the polenta is solid and hard, take out of the refrigerator, and using a rolling pin, crush it to crumble it to turn it into an homogenous grainy texture. Add egg and flour and mix well to obtain a dough. Take some dough and using your hand roll to form long cylinders (about 2/3 inches diameters) and cut into 1 inch long pieces.

Bring a large pot of salted water to a boil, then add gnocchi. The gnocchi are cooked when they come back up at the surface. Drain and serve with sauce. Sprinkle with chives and olive oil and serve hot (you can also sprinkle some parmesan, but it’s optional since the gnocchi do have parmesan).

Let’s pursue our polenta adventures with this rustic dish that can be made with leftover polenta. I don’t like to throw away food, but I don’t like to eat something that is leftover just because it’s a leftover, it needs to be good and flavorful. Rather than throwing away solid and somehow plain polenta, let’s turn it into something delicious.

I grew up with potato gnocchi so these polenta gnocchi are not something I inherited from my mom, beside they are a specialty from Trentino region (or Trentino Alto Adige) where they eat lots of polenta) which is located in the North-East of Italy close to the Austrian, Swiss and Liechenstein borders. They serve polenta gnocchi often with wild mushrooms and melted cheese sauce. You can use whatever you like on the gnocchi, it’s all up to your tastes (of course, I wouldn’t put melted chocolate on top!) but any tomato sauce, seafood or cheese based sauce would work fine. You can substitute ricotta salata with parmesan or pecorino too.

The sauce is vegetable based, I wanted to stay on the light and simple side with carrots, celery and zucchini with a tomato sauce enhanced by some cayenne or peperoncino.

I have to say that I find these gnocchi to be lighter than potato gnocchi and quite delicious and such a great dish when you don’t know what to do with leftover polenta.

Ingredients for 2

For the gnocchi

• 1 cup leftover polenta
• 3 tbs flour
• 1 egg

For the sauce

• 1 garlic clove, crushed
• 2 basil leaves, chopped
• 1 tbs olive oil (+1 for drizzling at the end)
• 1 carrot, diced
• 1 celery stick, diced
• 1/2 zucchini, diced
• 5 tbs crushed tomatoes
• cayenne to taste
• salt and pepper
• ricotta salata

Preparation

For the gnocchi

In a wooden board mix polenta, flour and egg and mix well until the mixture is smooth and non sticky. If sticky at a little flour. Proceed like you would for regular potato gnocchi. Cook like regular gnocchi in a salted boiling water. When the gnocchi come at the surface, remove from heat and drain.

For the sauce

In a pan, heat olive oil, add garlic and stir until fragrant without burning the garlic. Add all the cut vegetables, basil. Cover and cook at slow temperature until the vegetables are cooked but still a bit firm. Add crushed tomatoes, cayenne, salt and pepper and cook until the sauce thickens a bit and water evaporates.

Pour sauce on top of gnocchi, decorate with ricotta salata and drizzle with some extra olive oil. Serve very hot.