Creamy Bacon and Courgette Gnocchi

I usually spend some time every weekend scouring the internet or some magazines for some fresh food inspo for the week ahead. I think Jamie Olivers food has to be up there with my favourite, all his books are amazing and the food photography is just #goals for me… I was having a little scroll of his pasta recipes and came across an old favourite of mine that I had completely forgotten about from his Jamie At Home book… Courgette Carbonara (I will link it here for anyone who wants to try the original recipe).

This recipe is heavily inspired by his one (credit where credits due… not going to pretend I just plucked this out of thin air 🙋🏻‍♀️) but I wanted to try it with Gnocchi and use my old faithful Philadelphia Light instead of cream.

This amount makes enough for 2 people but I had an extra large portion (🐷) and Isla scoffed the rest.

For 2 people you will need:

• 4 rashers of Smoked Bacon

• 2 Courgettes

• 400g Gnocchi

• 2 tsp fresh chopped Thyme (remove the leaves from the stalks before chopping)

• 1 tsp Garlic

• 1 Egg

• 100g Philadelphia Light

• 30g Parmesan

• Salt and Pepper

Cut the Bacon into lardons, the Courgette into quarters removing the spongey middle part then slice. Mix the Egg with the Philadelphia and Parmesan saving some of the Parmesan to go on top at the end.

Put the Bacon into a cold large non stick pan and a pan of water with salt on to boil. Turn the heat on the frying pan and start to fry the Bacon… I do it from cold so the fat renders down and the Bacon then frys off nicely without having to add any extra oil.

Once the Bacon is crispy, add the Courgette to the pan with the Thyme, Garlic and a little Black Pepper. Add the Gnocchi to the boiling water, turn down to a simmer and simmer for 1-2 minutes… it will all float to the top which means its ready. Drain and save some of the cooking water.

Turn off the heat for the frying pan. Add the Gnocchi and the Egg and Cheese mixture stirring through with a few spoonfuls of the water from the Gnocchi to make a nice silky, creamy sauce.

And thats it!

Hope you enjoy.

L x