By Lori McCarthy of Cod Sounds

After a long winter here in Newfoundland — a place where nothing grows for almost 8 months of the year — the spring greens have always been a welcomed sight.

As someone who fell in love with our foods later in life, the moment you taste a flavour that you have patiently waited 12-months for — knowing that you won’t get that again for another 12 months — well, it’s pretty special. To help celebrate this food moment, I try to take an old traditional dish and bring it to the table in ways that may have never been done. I think it’s fair to say that mom’s generation never heard of gnocchi or dandelion pesto.

Serves: a family of 4

Gnocchi

1 cup fresh ricotta

½-1 cup flour (add more if needed, this is based on the consistency of the ricotta)

1 egg

DIRECTIONS 

• Place a medium size pot of heavily salted water (6 cups of water) over high heat and bring to a boil. Once boiled, reduce to a simmer and cover until you begin cooking your gnocchi.
• Place your ricotta cheese in a bowl. Sprinkle with the flour, starting with ½ cup. 
• With fork begin to gently fold in your flour. Make a well in the centre of the ricotta flour mixture and crack the egg into the well. 
• Scramble the egg in the well with a fork, then gradually mix with the surrounding ricotta flour mixture — do not overwork.
• Slowly adding flour, combine all ingredients together until you have a ball that can be gently kneaded. Add more flour as needed.  
• Fold and knead for a total of about 20 times. The dough should be slightly springy and not sticky  —gentle, gentle, gentle.
• Using a scraper or a sharp knife, cut the dough into 6 equal pieces. Lightly dust each piece and roll each out into a slender log approximately ½” to 1” thick. Cut each log into 1” pieces. These pieces can be cooked now, or they can be pushed over a wooden gnocchi board or the back of a fork to form the signature ridged gnocchi texture.
• Place freshly made gnocchi in the simmering water pot and gently boil until they float to the surface (approximately 2 minutes of cooking).
• Strain out of the water with a slotted spoon, place in a large serving bowl and dress with your pesto while still hot.

Dandelion Pesto

2 cup of finely chopped fresh dandelion

3/4 cup lightly toasted pine nuts

1 cup finely grated Parmigiano-Reggiano

¼ tsp. pepper

Light olive oil

DIRECTIONS

• I like to use a mortar and pestle because I like a coarse consistency, but you can certainly put your ingredients in a blender (except the oil).
• Add your oil slowly until you get a loose paste.