Gnocchi Alla Norma Bake
Before You Start
- Preheat oven to 200°C
- Large baking tray lined with parchment
- Baking dish
Ingredients
- 1 large aubergine
- 2 tbsp olive oil
- Salt and pepper
- 3 cloves of garlic
- 30g basil
- 1 tbsp olive oil
- 1 400g tin of tinned tomatoes
- good quality plant-based burrata
- 500g gnocchi
Method
1
Prepare the aubergine
- Trim and cut the aubergine into 3cm cubes and transfer to a lined baking tray. Toss with olive oil, salt and pepper and roast in the oven for 20-30 minutes, shaking the tray halfway through
- Remove the tray from the oven and set aside
2
Meanwhile, prepare the tomato sauce
- Peel and roughly chop the garlic
- Separate the basil leaves from the stem. Finely chop the stems, and put the leaves to one side
- Heat 1 tbsp olive oil in a saucepan over medium heat. Once warm, gently saute the garlic for 1 minute. Add the tinned tomatoes and chopped basil socks to the pot, along with 100ml water. Bring to the boil then reduce the heat and simmer for 10 minutes. Remove from the heat
3
Prepare the gnocchi bake
- Add the tomato sauce to a baking dish. Stir through the gnocchi, roasted aubergine and basil leaves
- Dot over the plant based burrata. Transfer to the oven and bake for 15 minutes until piping hot and bubbling round the side
4
Serve and enjoy
- Divided the gnocchi between 4 bowls and tuck in
Why This Works
The trick here is roasting the aubergine separately first. It gets golden and slightly caramelised, which gives you way more flavour than if you just threw it straight into the sauce. That depth is what makes the whole dish taste like it's been cooking for hours, even though you're in and out in 45 minutes.