The final recipe for Cheese Month came about thanks to Neal’s Yard Dairy and their excellent Whin Yeats Wensleydale, a cheese that melts far better than you might think. It packs a big flavour punch, but doesn’t take very long to make.
So Cheese Month is drawing to a close. I hope you’ve found a meal to enjoy. As a longtime fan of cooking with cheese, I have enjoyed diving deep into familiar territory. There isn’t a cheese I won’t cook with. If you don’t want the cheese fun to end, it doesn’t have to. I’ve umpteen more cheesy recipes for you to explore:
Breakfast Pide
Paneer Kofta
School Dinner Cheese Flan
Paneer Jalfrezi
The Best Nachos
Winter Lasagne
Tartiflette Pie
Roasted Cauliflower Cheese
Broccoli and Cheddar Mascarpone Pie
With this week’s recipe, I've recreated a kind of British version of Gnocchi alla Sorrentina, featuring woody herbs and acidic cheese in place of the usual basil and mozzarella. The sliced onions and chillies in the tomato sauce add texture, sweetness and heat. But the star of the show is the Whin Yeats Wensleydale, a British Territorial cheese that you can get from Neals Yard Dairy. In fact, I wrote this very recipe for the recipe section of the Neal’s Yard Dairy website, which you should totally check out if, like me, you love cheesy cooking.
This particular Wensleydale is great here because it’s made to an older, traditional Dales cheese recipe which results in a supple – and frankly – bendy, texture, totally dissimilar from the hard, crumbliness you might associate with the word ‘Wensleydale’. That bendy texture takes on a kind of Cheddar Curd stretchiness when it melts which works wonderfully, and its milky flavour mimics mozzarella, but with even more interest.
Normally, I would say a packet of gnocchi serves two rather than four (I prefer to be generous with portions), but here, the flavours are very rich and there’s plenty of protein from the cheese, so you can get four portions out of this recipe, no problem.
If you can’t buy Whin Yeats Wensleydale, you could go for Yoredale, which takes on an almost saganaki-like aspect when it melts in the heat of the oven. If you need a supermarket cheese, I don’t recommend substituting a Wensleydale here because they’re too dry and crumbly. Instead, you’d probably be best going back to Italy and using mozzarella, or substituting a Medium Cheddar, which is similarly bendy, and is a supermarket cheese I’ve become an increasingly big fan of. I explained why here when talking toasties. Okay let’s get to it!
Whin Yeats Gnocchi (kinda) alla Sorrentina
70ml olive oil
2 sprigs rosemary, washed
2 onions, thinly sliced
1 large red chilli, sliced (remove the seeds if you prefer things less spicy)
1 clove garlic, thinly sliced
1 tin of tomatoes
1 pack gnocchi
200g Whin Yeats Wensleydale, rind removed, cut into 7-8 slices ½ cm thick
Add the olive oil into your smallest saucepan on your lowest ring. When hot, add the just-washed rosemary (still wet) to the pan. Carefully hold the pan to one side so the oil completely submerges the rosemary sprig (this stops it splattering) then cook for one minute until the leaves are crisping but not browned. Turn off the heat.
Pour the infused oil into a heavy bottomed pot (saving a few sprigs for garnish) and add your sliced onion and a pinch of salt. Cook on a medium-low heat for 5 minutes, then add your sliced chillies and cook for 10 more minutes, stirring occasionally. Add your sliced clove of garlic and cook for 2 more minutes.
Now deglaze the pan with a splash of red or white wine if you have it. If not, don't worry, just add a splash of water! Add the tin of tomatoes and clean out the tin with water (approx 100ml) and add that. Season with plenty of black pepper. Simmer the sauce for 10 minutes.
When it has reduced a little, pour the sauce into a deep-sided baking dish. In the same saucepan, add boiling water and a little salt, then add your gnocchi and boil for 2 minutes. Use a spider or slotted spoon to transport the gnocchi from the pan to the sauce in the baking dish. Stir well to coat, then add the Whin Yeats Wensleydale, in slices, poking a third of the cheese underneath the surface, and placing the rest on top of the gnocchi so you have a couple of layers. Bake at 200°c for 12 minutes. Garnish with a few crispy rosemary sprigs, and enjoy, ideally with some bread and a side salad.