gnocchi with chestnut and sausage

gnocchi con castagne e salsiccia

for 6

Potato Gnocchi (see here)

sauce

500 g cooked and peeled chestnuts (see here)

80 g butter

6 spiced Italian sausages, skinned

2 red onions, peeled and chopped

2 garlic cloves, peeled and sliced

3 dried red chillies, crumbled

2 tablespoons chopped fresh sage leaves

150 ml red wine

1 × 400 g tin peeled plum tomatoes

freshly grated nutmeg

Maldon salt and freshly grated black pepper

to serve

12 whole fresh sage leaves

2 tablespoons olive oil

100 g Parmesan, freshly grated

For the sauce, melt the butter in a medium, thick-bottomed frying pan and fry the sausage meat, stirring and breaking it up over a medium heat to allow the juices to evaporate and the meat to begin to brown. Add the onion, garlic, chilli and chopped sage. Cook gently for 30 minutes until the onions are soft. Pour in the wine and increase the heat until the wine evaporates. Add the tomatoes with half of their juices and the whole chestnuts, lower the heat and cook for about 30 minutes. Season with salt, pepper and nutmeg.

Fry the sage leaves until crisp in the olive oil. Cook the gnocchi in batches in a generous amount of boiling salted water. They are ready when they bob up to the surface of the simmering water. Serve with the sauce and Parmesan, topped with the sage leaves.