Autumn Gnocchi with Apple, Fennel, and Parmesan

Fennel growing (Michal Waxman, link in Hebrew)

Apples in Upstate New York – some of these will end up in my apple cake this year for Rosh HaShanah. (Photo mine, September 2016)

Greetings! I hope you had a lovely holiday season, be it with your family, your friends, or on a spaceship with kindly aliens.

I have been busy with applications for urban planning school, or volunteering for the Democratic Party, so I have not sat down to do quite as much food writing. However, I did make a very fun gnocchi dish using lots of traditional ingredients from Italian and German Jewry – apples, fennel, and cheese. Gnocchi and Parmesan are not Jewish per se. However, gnocchi has a long tradition in Italian Jewish cooking – though preparations with spinach or tomato sauces are far more common. I cannot find sources in a language I speak for the various hard cheeses of Italian Jewry (Italian speakers, hint hint), but Italian Jewish recipe collections in the languages I do speak use hard cheese heavily. In any case, I should not worry if Parmesan is “traditional” – authenticity is bullshit anyway. That said, this recipe would not be too out of place on an Italian Jewish table.

I have actually made an Italian Jewish dish with fennel and cheese in the past – I highly recommend it.

Autumn Gnocchi with Apple, Fennel, and Parmesan

2 tablespoons butter

1 large white onion, chopped roughly into small pieces

1 medium bulb fennel, chopped roughly into small pieces

2/3 teaspoon table salt

1/3 teaspoon ground black pepper

1 teaspoon apple cider vinegar

8 cloves garlic, chopped into bits (you can vary the size according to taste)

3 medium Fuji apples, cored and chopped into cubes (you can use another crisp, sweet apple such as a Honeycrisp or Cameo)

2 sprigs of fresh rosemary, chopped with stems removed

½ cup water + more to cook gnocchi

1 500g/17.5 oz package potato or sweet potato gnocchi

1 cup shredded Parmesan cheese

1. Heat a deep saucepan, then melt the butter. Add the onions and fennel. Sauté for two minutes, or until they begin to soften.
2. Add the salt, pepper, and vinegar, and mix in. Sauté for two more minutes, or until they are slightly softer.
3. Add the garlic, apples, and rosemary, and stir to combine. When the pan starts sizzling again and the apples begin to soften, add the water, then cover.
4. Cook covered for ten minutes, then uncovered for ten minutes on a high flame. Stir every few minutes. The apples and fennel should soften and release their juices.
5. In the meantime, prepare the gnocchi according to package directions. (If you want to use homemade gnocchi, try this recipe here, but I am all for industrial food.)
6. When the apples and fennel are soft and the liquid has mostly reduced, turn off the heat. Add the gnocchi and parmesan, and stir thoroughly. Serve warm.

Thank you to Eric Routen for participating in User Acceptance Testing for this recipe.