I saw a recipe for chestnut gnocchetti with a taleggio sauce on GialloZafferano, and thought I’d give it a try. This was the first time I made something with chestnut flour, which has a bit of a sweet taste. It was nice with the taleggio sauce, although I think gorgonzola would be even better. The technique to make gnocchetti, orecchiette and malloreddus is all very similar, and when you use a stand mixer to knead the dough it is a piece of cake. It is more work if you make them smaller, but that does have a nicer texture. This is a nice winter dish that requires just a few ingredients.
Ingredients
For 2 servings
For the chestnut gnocchetti
150 grams chestnut flour
75 grams Italian 00 flour
150 ml lukewarm water
pinch of salt
For the taleggio sauce
100 grams taleggio
40 ml whole milk
freshly grated nutmeg
salt and freshly ground pepper
Preparation
Sieve the flours into the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment. Add a bit of salt.
Turn on the machine and slowly add the water.
Mix until the dough comes together.
Switch over to the dough hook, and knead until the dough is smooth and elastic, about 10 minutes.
Wrap the dough in plastic wrap and allow to rest in the refrigerator for at least an hour.
After the dough has rested, take it out of the fridge and take a piece of dough. Keep the rest covered in plastic wrap so it won’t dry out. Roll the piece of dough into a thin sausage with your hands on a wooden work surface dusted with flour.
Cut the dough into small pieces.
Press down with your thumb on each piece of dough and ‘scrape’ your thumb to the side to make a gnocchetto.
Repeat until you have used up all of the dough, putting the gnocchetti on a kitchen towel dusted with flour.
Bring a large pot of water to a boil. Add salt.
For the sauce, put the milk and the cubed cheese in a saucepan and add a bit of freshly grated nutmeg.
Allow the cheese to melt over low heat, then keep the sauce warm over very low heat. Be careful, as the sauce will curdle if you heat it by too much.
Add the gnocchetti to the boiling water.
Cook them until they rise to the surface.
Transfer them to the sauce with a slotted spoon.
Stir to coat with the sauce.
Serve on warm plates.
Flashback
Two years ago I prepared fusilli with roasted peppers. Fusilli are a great pasta shape to hold a lot of sauce between their coils.
Stefan's Gourmet Blog 
buoni, da provare quanto prima.
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Chestnut flour becoming a necessity in my gluten free pantry. I have a list of recipes to experiment with, including this one. Thanks for sharing Stefan
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This recipe has part regular flour. I’m not sure what will happen if you use chestnut flour only. It may be required to add an egg?
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You will get me to try gnocchi yet. These look pretty delicious.
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Thanks Conor. Gnocchi made from flour, even if it is chestnut flour, are a lot easier than gnocchi made from potatoes. Even more difficult are gnocchi made from pumpkin, eggplant, or greens, as that dough is very difficult to work with. So these gnocchi or the malloreddus would be a good point to start.
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I’ve been doing a lot of experimenting with chestnut flour lately. I’ll need to add this to the collection. I’ve had chestnut pasta in Italy and loved it.
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In that case I’m sure you’ll love this!
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Like you, I’ve never used chestnut flour, Stefan, but this recipe has piqued my curiosity. Beyond the malloreddus, the sauce you used for accompaniment sounds very flavorful. Both together must have been quite a nice dish.
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