There are some times when trying out a fusion dish goes horribly wrong. And then there are times when everything just clicks together, your instincts are just right, and the result is a bowl of a delicious dish that tastes like the perfect merging of two cuisines. The latter recently happened to me when I tried an inventive little dish which fused two of my favourite cuisines together—Italian and Rajasthani.
I merged the Rajasthani favourite, Gatte Ki Saag, with the Italian staple, Potato Gnocchi—and the resulting Gatte Gnocchi dish surprised me and my taste buds equally! You see, I always found the taste of Gnocchi a little too bland for my taste, but the cooking method intrigued me. The Gnocchi, so soft and pillowy, needs a good sauce to get the perfect flavours going. So, I do make the occasional potato or pumpkin Gnocchi at home, but everything depended on getting the sauce or compound butter tasting just right.
With Gatte Ki Saag, the problem was the other way around. The Rajasthani dish is spicy with a thick sauce that always tastes just right. The flavourful Gatte made of besan, however, always seemed tight and overcooked to me. So, there I was, with two dishes with basically the same concept—a steamed dough served with a sauce—wondering if merging them together can cancel out the problems while enhancing the favourable aspects of both.
The result was a Gatte Gnocchi dough with potatoes, besan instead of the flour, and curd instead of the eggs—along with the choicest of spices that ensure the pillowy Gatte Gnocchi taste amazing even by themselves. For the Gatter Gnocchi sauce, I whipped up a tomato-garlic-turmeric-oregano-based gravy that tastes like the perfect marriage of Indian and Italian cuisines. The addition of cheese on top manages to counter the spices further, while merging the two culinary worlds together really well.
You might think this dish is too good to be true, but trust me, it’s totally worth the try. Here’s the recipe you’ll need.
Ingredients:
For the Gatte Gnocchi Dough
1 cup besan or gram flour
1 large potato, boiled
¼ tsp asafoetida
½ tsp turmeric powder
½ tsp red chilli powder
½ tsp coriander powder
2 tbsp curd
1 tsp oil
Salt, to taste
Water, for dough and boiling
For the Sauce
1 onion, ground to a paste
2 tomatoes, ground to a paste
1 bay leaf
1 tbsp garlic, minced
½ tsp turmeric powder
½ tsp oregano
Salt, to taste
2 tbsp grated cheese
3 tbsp butter
Method:
1. Place the potato in a large bowl and mash it using a fork or masher. Make sure there are no lumps.
2. Add besan, asafoetida, turmeric powder, red chilli powder, coriander powder and salt. Mix well.
3. Now add the oil and curd, mix thoroughly. Add splashes of water and make a soft dough. Don’t overwork the dough.
4. Divide the dough into 5 parts, roll each part into a thick tube, then cut them into equal-sized pieces.
5. Use a fork to turn each small piece into a well-formed gnocchi.
6. Boil water in a large pot, add salt. Once the water is boiling, add the gatte gnocchi. Once the gatte gnocchi are cooked, they will swim to the top of the pot. Remove them and set them aside or put them in the sauce.
7. To prepare the sauce for the gatte gnocchi, heat butter in a pan.
8. Add the bay leaf and garlic, then add the onion and tomato pastes.
9. Add the salt, turmeric powder, oregano and continue stirring until the onions and tomatoes are cooked.
10. If the sauce thickens too much, you can add some water to make it thinner. Once the sauce is the consistency you want, add the gatte gnochhi and the grated cheese. Serve hot.