Beet gnocchi with black truffles

Beet gnocchi are an excellent and flavorful first course that adds a touch of color to a table. Pair it with a Chianti Classico Vallepicciola.

It only takes only a few, quick moves to prepare this but the result is quite impressive.

Ingredients for 4 people:

For the gnocchi: 600g peeled, boiled and mashed “floury” potatoes, 150g peeled, boiled and mashed red beets, 1 egg, 70g wheat flour, salt and pepper.

For the sauce: extra-virgin olive oil (or butter) as needed, 2 sage leaves, black truffles as desired and 2 tablespoons grated Parmigiano Reggiano.

Directions:

Mix together the beets and potatoes on a pastry board adding in the egg, flour, salt and pepper. Make a slab of dough and let it sit in the refrigerator for a few minutes.

Break off pieces of dough from the slab and roll them into thin cylinders to be cut into gnocchi. Boil the gnocchi in abundant, salted water.

While the gnocchi are cooking (around 5 minutes) heat up a trickle of EVOO in a pan with the sage leaves.

As soon as the gnocchi float, put them in the pan along with some of the pasta water. Cook for a few minutes until the sauce is creamy.

Turn off the heat. Add in the Parmigiano, some EVOO and slices of black truffle.

Wine to pair: 

(edited by Stefania Vinciguerra)

Chianti Classico Docg Vallepicciola

Very Intense ruby red garnet color. Wrapping and developed nose: sour cherry jam, then fresh sour cherry and vanilla. Full palate, with a dense and youthful tannin leading to a good length finish.

Production area: Pievasciata, Castelnuovo Berardenga (Siena) at an altitude of 380-440 metres a.s.l. on limestone and clay soil with presence of galestro and alberese.

Grapes variety: Sangiovese 100%, spurred cordon and Guyot training system, plant density 5,000 vines per hectare and yield per hectare 6 tons.

Wine-making: Harvest end of september / first decade of october, grapes coming from all Sangiovese vineyards of the property.. Alcoholic fermentation in small steel tanks under controlled temperature, maceration in steel for 10 days approximately; malolactic fermentation in oak barrels.Aging in big barrels for 12 months approximately. Bottle aging from 3 to 5 months.

Alcoholic content: 14.50%

Serving temperature: 16-18°C.

Shelf price: € 15