Prawn and Spinach Baked Gnocchi

Time and motivation have not always been on my side this past few months, and I've swayed from writing out a detailed meal planner for a month, then completely changing my mind and making it up as I go along on the day! On this particular day I really couldn't decide what to make, despite having invited my dad over for dinner. I think I may have originally put something glamorous like tinned soup or cheese and crackers on the planner, and really couldn't offer that up to my guest!

I knew I had spinach in the freezer (so handy) and a bag of some rather lovely jumbo king prawns also in there bought recently on offer, and was trying to decide how to combine them best. One of my favourite dishes is my haddock bake with prawns and spinach, but just wasn't in the mood for it. My mum needed to do some shopping anyway, so after a wander around Sainsbury's I spotted the bags of ready made gnocchi and my mind started doing its usual scheming! Gnocchi are funny little beasts I think, not pasta and not potato either. I do find them rather filling but I was hungry as a horse that day, and decided to experiment! My dad is a good eater and we did eat this between us but you probably could stretch to 3 servings from it. It made a nice change from the more usual pasta bakes I make and everything worked well together.

The only thing I would say is make sure everything is ready to go, and still hot under grill as you are merely finishing the dish off by browning, and not actually baking it. It would probably happily go in the oven for around 20-25 minutes to get the same effect.

Ingredients:

2 heaped tbsp. Yoghurt style cream cheese (I like Lidl’s one!) 

225g cooked, peeled king prawns, thawed 

4 blocks of frozen leaf spinach, thawed 

Handful grated cheddar Cheese 

500g ready made gnocchi 

S&p 

Pre-heat grill to medium hot 

Boil gnocchi for 2 minutes, add the spinach to warm through (or boil separately) and drain, reserving about half a cup of the liquid 

Place the drained gnocchi and spinach in a suitable baking dish (I love my little pyrex one), poke in the prawns. Gently warm through the reserved liquid, season and stir in the cream cheese, pour over the gnocchi, sprinkle with cheese and grill for around ten minutes or until piping hot and all lovely and golden brown