Gnocchi with Meatballs and Beef Olives
If you have guests over or are having a small party of some sort, then it’s good to have stunning dishes in your pocket to wow everyone’s tastebuds and get them to love you, which at the end of the day is the most important thing.
The recipe I will be sharing takes many components that come together in a delicious way that any lover of Italian food would beg to have as their last supper, it is a recipe that comes from Ischia, specifically from an Italian Grandmother named Giggina, I think you know that any recipe from an Italian grandmother is going to be impressive.
The dish is composed of light potato gnocchi studded with classic meatballs and some beef olives baked in a luscious tomato sauce. Beef olives, or involtini, are thin slices of beef rolled up around things like sausage meat, herbs, cheese, and other delicious things that are baked in marinara. By the way, what makes beef olives different from braciole is that beef olives are made with thin slices of rump roast while braciole has flank steak.
There are many components to this dish, and yeah it does take a bit of time to make, but I promise you that once you see the smiles on the face of your guests when you serve it to them, it will be all worth it.
And don’t worry, I’ll show you every step of the way.
Serves 5-6
Difficulty: Intermediate
Time: 4 hours
For the Beef Olives:
3 slices of rump steak (2 1/2oz each)
1/2 garlic clove, crushed
1 tablespoon finely chopped parsley
1 oz grated Pecorino Romano
2 tablespoons raisins
1 tablespoon pine nuts
2 1/2 tablespoons olive oil
Salt
For the Tomato Sauce:
1 small onion, diced
1/2 garlic clove
1/4 cup dry white wine
1 (28oz) can crushed tomatoes
3 large basil leaves
Salt
A pinch of sugar (optional)
For the Meatballs:
1/3 cup breadcrumbs
1/3 cup dry white wine
10 oz ground beef
1 oz grated Parmigiano Reggiano
1 tablespoon pine nuts, finely chopped
1 tablespoon finely chopped parlsey
1 garlic clove, crushed with a bit of salt
Salt
1 egg
Vegetable oil, for cooking
All purpose flour, for dredging
For the Gnocchi:
14 oz starchy potatoes (like russets), peeled and halved
1 2/3 cups semolina flour
All purpose flour, for dusting
1 oz grated Pecorino or ricotta salata, to serve
Step 1: Make the Beef Olives
Flatten the rump steaks with a meat mallet until it reaches a thin, even thickness (about 1/4 inch thick), then season all over with salt. Combine the garlic, parsley, shredded cheese, raisins, and pine nuts together, then scatter evenly among the three steaks.
Roll up each steak like a carpet, aiming to get it as tight as possible, then secure with a toothpick or two.
Heat the oil in a frying pan over medium-high heat, then add the steaks and cook, rolling them around now and then, until the steaks are browned on all sides. Remove from the pan and set aside.
Step 2: Make the Tomato sauce
Chop up the diced onion and garlic together until the garlic is mostly minced, then add that to the pan the steaks seared in and cook for about 5 minutes, or until the onion begins to soften.
Deglaze the pan with the white wine then let it reduce a minute, scraping up any brown bits on the bottom of the pan as you do so, then add the tomatoes, basil leaves and a pinch of salt.
Bring to a simmer, then return the steaks to the sauce. Cover the pan, then let everything simmer for at least an hour, or until the meat is very tender, adding some water if it looks like the sauce is getting thick too quickly.
Taste the sauce as it simmers, and add a pinch of sugar if you feel like the tomatoes are lacking sweetness.
Step 3: Cook the Potatoes for the Gnocchi
Cover the peeled and halved potatoes in cold, salted water and bring that to a boil. Let the potatoes boil for about 15-20 minutes, or until very tender. You can do this while you prepare the meatballs.
(I Completely forgot to take photos for this step…oops…well, I’m sure you know what boiling potatoes looks like)
Step 4: Make the Meatballs
Soak the breadcrumbs with the white wine in a large bowl, then use a fork to mash it up into a pulp. Add the ground beef, cheese, pine nuts, parsley, garlic, salt and egg, then mix well with your hands.
Fry up a small portion of the meat in a pan and give that a taste to check for seasoning, adjust accordingly.
Using slightly wet hands, form the mixture into walnut-sized balls and roll between open palms to get a nice round shape.
Once all of the meatballs are formed, heat a pot filled with about 1 inch of vegetable oil until the oil starts to shimmer. Toss the meatballs in flour to dredge, then fry in batches for about 3 minutes per batch, or until the meatballs are nice and brown. Remove with a slotted spoon, and transfer to paper towels to drain.
(If you don’t want to bother with frying, you could bake or even air fry your meatballs at 425 degrees F/220 C for about 15 minutes)
Once the beef olives are fork tender, add the meatballs to the sauce and cook for another 15 minutes.
Step 5: Make the Gnocchi
When the potatoes are tender, drain thoroughly, then use a ricer or potato masher to crush the potatoes into fine shreds. Dump the crushed potatoes into a bowl, then add the semolina and stir until a smooth dough forms, adding regular flour if needed.
Cover the dough for about 10 minutes to allow the flour to absorb the moisture in the potatoes.
Cut off a small piece of gnocchi and roll that into a 2-inch rope. Cut the dough into small pieces, then roll them lightly in all purpose flour.
Take each piece and roll down the ridged edges of a gnocchi board or even a fork. Repeat with the rest of the gnocchi mixture.
To cook, bring a saucepan of salted water to a boil then lower in your gnocchi and cook for about 3-5 minutes, or until they bob to the surface.
Finally, drain the gnocchi and dump them onto a warm serving platter, then top with plenty of that tomato sauce and the grated cheese.
(Traditionally, you’d serve the gnocchi as a primo (appetizer) and then the meatballs and beef olives as your segundo (entree) with a salad.)
