I cannot tell you how much I love flipping through Jamie Oliver’s 5 Ingredients. It just makes things so simple, especially recipes that seem like they might take a lot of time, or effort. But he makes it so that you can create dishes that will seem like they took forever, and impress your friends, without too much effort.

There are times when I look at cookbooks and the ingredients list is 20 items long. Sometimes it can be fun to make recipes that require a bit of technique and time. However, for the most part I’m very much someone who, during the week, wants something that I can make in less than an hour (or only takes 10 minutes of prep time and then can sit in the oven or on the hob for an hour).

As a teacher, I tend to eat early. Dinner is usually before 7pm, mainly because when I get home from work at 5:30, I’m hungry. So, I get straight down to making dinner as soon as I can. At the moment though, we’re enjoying our Chinese New Year holidays so that means nearly 2 whole weeks of no school. For you, readers, that means that I plan to do a lot of cooking and get recipes on the blog over the next couple of weeks.

In fact, as soon as I finish writing this post I’m going to get to work on four different recipes. Some of my own, some from magazine clippings, and some from Pinterest. You’ll have to wait and see which ones come up – as it will depend on whether or not they taste any good!!!

So without further ado, here’s the recipe taken from Jamie Oliver’s website, which you can also find here.

Ingredients

400 grams baking potatoes
350 grams asparagus
50 grams plain flour
1/2 bunch of fresh thyme (I used sage)
50 grams Parmesan cheese
Olive oil
Salt
Pepper

1. Peel and wash the potatoes, then cut them into 3cm chunks. Cook in a large pan of boiling water for 12 – 15 minutes (or until tender).
2. Trim the woody edges off the asparagus, and chop into 1cm pieces, leaving the tops whole.
3. Drain the potatoes and steam dry for 2 minutes. Then return to the pan and mash them well. Season with salt and pepper.
4. Tip the mash onto a clean work surface.
5. Rinse the pan, and fill it with boiling kettle water and place over a high heat.
6. Using your hands, combine the flour into the mashed potatoes, mixing well.
7. Divide into 24 pieces, squeezing in your palm to compress, then drop the gnocchi into the boiling water. Cook for one minute, or until they float.
8. In a separate frying pan, heat a tablespoon of olive oil with the asparagus, stirring occasionally. Add the thyme (or sage) leaves.
9. Using a slotted spoon, add the cooked gnocchi directly to the frying pan. Grate most of the cheese over the frying pan.
10. Mix well, and add 100ml of the boiling water to create a sauce.
11. Season the gnocchi to your taste, then serve with the remaining Parmesan and a drizzle of olive oil.