Baked Gnocchi with Crispy Pancetta, Sage & Brown Butter

Ingredients

• 2 x 500g fresh gnocchi
• 150 g pancetta lardons
• 60 g butter
• 20 leaves fresh sage
• 3 cloves garlic, thinly sliced
• 60 g parmesan, finely grated
• 1 tbsp olive oil
• 100 ml double cream
• black pepper
• nutmeg, for grating
• Crusty ciabatta, to serve
• Fresh basil, to serve

Method

1. Preheat the oven to 220°C/fan 200°C. Tip the gnocchi into a large roasting tin, drizzle with the olive oil, season with salt and pepper, and spread into a single layer with room between them — crowd the tin and they steam instead of crisp, and you'll end up with gummy gnocchi rather than golden ones.
2. Scatter the pancetta lardons over the gnocchi but hold the sliced garlic back for now — sliced garlic in a 220°C oven for 20 minutes will turn black and bitter, and burnt garlic ruins everything it touches. Roast for 15 minutes, tossing once halfway.
3. Pull the tin out, scatter the garlic across the top, and return for a final 5 minutes — that's long enough for the garlic to turn pale gold and fragrant without catching. The gnocchi should be crisp at the edges and the pancetta mahogany and rendered.
4. Meanwhile, melt the butter in a small stainless or cast iron pan over medium heat. Once it foams, add the sage leaves and swirl for 2–3 minutes — watch it, don't walk away. You want the milk solids to turn nut-brown and the kitchen to smell of toasted hazelnuts; one moment past that and it's burnt. Pull off the heat the second it's there.
5. Drizzle the double cream over the hot gnocchi, pour over most of the brown butter and crisp sage, and grate over half the parmesan. Return to the oven for 5 minutes, until the cream is bubbling at the edges and clinging to the gnocchi in a glossy sauce.
6. Taste a gnocchi — pancetta and parmesan are both salty, so you may not need more, but a final crack of pepper and grating of nutmeg almost always lifts it. Adjust now, not at the table.
7. Grate over the remaining parmesan, drizzle with the last of the brown butter and shattered sage leaves, and bring the tin straight to the table while it's still sizzling. Serve with extra parmesan to grate over and a sharply dressed green salad alongside to cut through the richness.