Prune-Stuffed Gnocchi with Foie Gras Sauce

This is another one from Barbara Lynch. She wrote it up as being kind of hard to do but worth it for special occasions. For my New Year's dinner, I wanted something special and had the luxury of time for making these. It is a lot of work, but if you have a free Saturday and have friends coming over, this is a very indulgent appetizer (or entree if you give everyone a few more gnocchis). The dough is extremely light and fluffy, the prune filling is tart, and sweet, and the earthy, rich foie gras sauce is amazingly decadent. The crunch of the almonds on top is also a nice contrast. Yum!

I had to make a few changes because it's really hard to find 8oz of foie gras, so I used a foie gras spread which worked fine. This has also inspired me to try stuffing other things into gnocchi. Any suggestions? Maybe a pureed bitter green?

Serves 6
Ingredients:
For the Gnocchi:
22 pitted prunes
1 cup Madeira (or Vin Santo, but Madeira's cheaper)
2-2 1/4 lb Idaho or Yukon Gold potatoes (I used 2 Idaho, 1 Yukon gold) unpeeled
1 1/2 - 2 cups all purpose flour, plus more as needed
2 large eggs
kosher salt and fresh ground pepper
1/8 tsp freshly grated nutmeg

For the Sauce:
8 oz foie gras spread
1 stick butter, at room temperature
1/2 cup finely chopped shallots (about 2 large)
15 sprigs thyme
15 black peppercorns
15 coriander seeds
2 cups Madeira

For the Garnish:
2 tbsp chopped roasted almonds

Directions:
To make the gnocchi filling:

Put all but 2 prunes in a small sauce pan with the Madeira, adding a little more, if need be, to cover the prunes completely. Cook the prunes over medium heat, reducing the amount of liquid until the pan is almost dry, about 30 minutes. Set aside and let cool. Once cool, puree the prunes.

The prunes soak up all of the wine and the kitchen smells so sweet

To make the gnocchi dough
Put the potatoes in a medium pot of salted water. Bring to a boil and cook until very tender (a fork inserted should pull out easily). Drain the potatoes and let them cool until just able to touch, still pretty hot, and peel them.

Rice them or mash them on a baking sheet to cool. Make sure there are no big chunks left.

When cool, dump the potatoes onto a lightly floured work surface.

Jamie was my photographer, thanks Jameball!

Sprinkle 1 1/2 cups of the flour over the potatoes and fluff the flour into the potatoes, using your fingers and a light touch.

Gently gather the potatoes into a mound and create a well in the center. Whisk together the eggs and 1 tsp salt in a small bowl and pour them into the well. Add a couple of grinds of pepper and the nutmeg. Using your fingers, combine the ingredients. Kneed the dough by pushing it away from you with the heel of your hand, folding it over, giving it a quarter turn, and pushing it away again. Continue kneading, sprinkling on a little more flour as needed, until it forms a ball and the dough feels delicate and just a little bit sticky. Set the dough aside and clean the work surface of any hard bits.

Sprinkle the work surface lightly with flour. Roll out half of the dough to about 1/4 inch thick.

Using a 3-inch round cookie cutter or glass, punch out rounds of dough.

Reroll the scraps and cut out as many circles as you can. Line up the circles in rows for easy assembly line stuffing. If you have room, roll out the second half of the dough, if not, do it after this batch of gnocchi has been stuffed and shaped, but work without interruption because the potato dough will become less easy to work with as it sits.

To stuff the gnocchi:
Have a parchment-lined cookie sheet ready. Fill the a ziplock bag with the prune puree and cut off the corner to make a pastry bag (or use a pastry bag if you have one).

Put about a teaspoon of the prune puree in the center of each dough circle, leaving a 1/2 inch margin all around.

Fold the dough in half to make a half moon shape.

Seal the dough by pressing around the edges with your fingers.

Flip the half moon so it's on the rounded edge and use a finger to make an indentation in the middle (helps the sauce stick to the gnocchi).

Transfer them to the parchment lined cookie sheet, not letting them touch each other.

Put the cookie sheet into the freezer and freeze for at least half an hour. Once they're rock hard, you can put them into an air tight container or cook them right away.

To make sauce:
Mix the foie gras spread with the room temperature butter.

Meanwhile put the shallots, thyme, peppercorns, and coriander in a medium sauce pan or skillet. Pour the Madeira into the pan and cook on high heat until the liquid has reduced practically to a glaze.

Lower the heat to medium-low and whisk in about one sixth of the foie gras butter. As it melts, add a little more.

When all the foie gras butter has been whisked in, pass the sauce through a clean fine-mesh strainer. Keep the sauce warm (but not hot) as you finish the dish.

If the sauce gets too hot it might break, and if that happens whisk in a little warm water to bring it back together.

To serve, bring a large pot of salted water to a boil. Cook the gnocchi in batches of 5 or 6 at a time. They're done when they float to the top. To serve, divide the gnocchi and spoon the sauce on top. Sprinkle with the remaining prunes, chopped, and the almonds, chopped. Enjoy!