Skip to main content
Main

Beet "Gnocchi."

A gnocchi made from beet leaves, cheese, eggs, and curds, boiled and served with butter, nutmeg, cinnamon, and cheese.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓

Why it works: Nutmeg and cinnamon match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 11,917 recipes. Both carry estragole, which smells anise, licorice. The science ↓

Beet "Gnocchi."

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the leaves

  1. Wash the beet leaves and remove the mid-ribs.

  2. Boil the leaves, then transfer them to cold water to cool.

  3. Dry and mince the leaves finely.

Make the dough

  1. In an earthenware pot, combine the minced leaves, cheese, eggs, curds, nutmeg, and salt.

  2. Mix until thick.

  3. Place the mixture on a floured surface.

  4. Roll the mixture into finger-sized pieces.

  5. Cut the rolls into 2-inch pieces.

  6. Flour the pieces well.

Cook and serve

  1. Drop the pieces into boiling water.

  2. Once they float to the surface, remove them.

  3. Drain the pieces.

  4. Season with butter, nutmeg, cinnamon, and cheese before serving.

Recipe from a historical cookbook (Internet Archive).

Transcribed from a scanned cookbook and modernised for today's kitchens. Where the book gave no heat or time, or said "a moderate oven", the temperatures and times here may be modern equivalents rather than the book's own figures.

Explore the science

The flavor team

The pairs that carry this dish. Each one is judged two ways: how much their aromas overlap, and how often cooks already put them together.

  1. Nutmeg + cinnamontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together11,917 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  2. Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

  3. Nutmeg + flourtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,623 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Cheese + buttertop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together7,962 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).

  5. Flour + cinnamontop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together17,341 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Beet leaves
Provide the main vegetable body and earthy flavour of the gnocchi.
Eggs
Bind the mixture together and help it set when cooked.
Cheese
Adds savoury flavour and richness, and helps bind the mixture.
Curds or fresh milk cheese
Adds moisture and softness to the dough.

The step that matters

Mixing until thick. The mixture needs enough body to hold its shape when rolled and boiled. If it is too wet, the pieces can fall apart in the water, so it should be mixed until it is firm enough to roll.

“What each ingredient does” and “The step that matters” were written by Claude from this recipe’s own method and reviewed in samples by CompKitchen.

You might also like

Macaroni and CheeseMacaroni and Cheese102 recipesCheese MakingCheese Making50 recipesCheese FrittersCheese Fritters34 recipesCheese OmeletteCheese Omelette31 recipes