This week, may I present you with the softest and creamiest goat cheese gnocchi ever!

These fluffy cheesy clouds are made with only three ingredients, with basic kitchen equipment and require only 15 minutes of your time. Serve them with broad beans and cherry tomatoes wrapped in a ginger garlic sauce, and you will get a perfect spring treat!

In this recipe, find out how to make these incredibly delicious goat cheese gnocchi and how to clean and blanch broad beans for the best-tasting result!

Which ingredients will you need for this goat cheese gnocchi recipe with broad beans?

For the goat cheese gnocchi:

Fresh goat cheese: To make these gnocchi, I’m using fresh goat cheese that has been pressed the same way as ricotta cheese. It crumbles underneath your fingers but is a bit denser than ricotta itself.

Egg yolks: The egg yolks work as a binding agent in this gnocchi recipe helping the ingredients hold better together and making the dough easier to roll out. Since the egg size can slightly change the recipe, use medium-sized eggs for the best result. When making this gnocchi recipe, I only use the egg yolks, not the whole egg, since the egg white can make them dense and chewy.

’00’ flour: Double-zero flour is a fine-milled, soft flour from Italy, where it is traditionally used for making pasta and pizza doughs, but also gnocchi dough. Because of how finely ground it is, it produces a more silky and lighter gnocchi dough than coarser wheat flour.

It can have a different protein content (gluten), ranging from 7% to 14%, but for soft, fluffy gnocchi, it is best to use ’00’ flour with medium protein percentages (10-11%).

For the sauce:

Ginger & garlic: Use fresh ginger and garlic for the best result. Finely grated, they will mellow down as they cook, leaving pleasant zest and spice to this gnocchi recipe.

Lemon: Lemon’s acidity enhances other flavours and balances nicely with the sweetness of cherry tomatoes.

Parsley: Parsley brightens other flavours and visually upgrades the dish. Instead of parsley, you can also go with basil, thyme or other aromatic of your choice.

Broad beans: Broad beans, in the US known as fava beans, come from the legume family together with peas, green beans or chickpeas. Once picked, broad beans have quite a short life span, only 2-3 days, after which their pod starts getting soft, and the seeds start to discolour and become more bitter.

So, when buying broad beans on the market, look for firm, crisp pods with no air pockets inside. That is a clear sight that the broad beans have been freshly picked. Don’t waste your time on soggy old broad beans; you will probably throw more in the bin than put on your plate. I’ve learned it the hard way:)

Young broad beans (usually up to 5 cm) can be eaten whole, including their pods, while the mature ones are better to clean for the best taste. In this recipe, I’m using freshly picked mature broad beans, and a little bit later in the text, I will show you my preferred way of cleaning them.

If you don’t have the chance to buy fresh broad beans, you can buy them frozen. They will already come without the pod, making the cleaning process much faster and the result more consistent.

Cherry tomatoes: Juicy, sweet cherry tomatoes, aromatised with ginger, garlic and lemon, are the perfect accompaniment to these goat cheese gnocchi. Their sweetness pairs amazingly well with the tartness of the cheese.

How to make goat cheese gnocchi

Preparing the ingredients

First, dust a baking tray with flour, where you will place your homemade gnocchi once shaped.
Start by mixing ’00’ flour with salt and freshly ground black pepper in a bowl until evenly combined.

Then, separate the egg yolks from the egg whites, keeping the egg whites in an airtight container, refrigerated, for later use. For example, you can add them to your favourite omelette recipe the following day.

Lastly, before weighing out the goat cheese, remove any excess moisture by placing it between two double-layered pieces of kitchen paper and lightly pressing it with the palms of your hands. Remove the kitchen paper and weigh the goat cheese into a bowl where you will form the dough.

Making the dough

When making this gnocchi dough, the key is to work it as little as possible. The process is relatively fast and straightforward. To make this dough, you only need one hand and repeat a squeezing motion, allowing all the ingredients to come together. To keep your hand clean, you can use a glove!

So, first, add the egg yolks to your goat cheese and squeeze the ingredients until the mixture looks even.

Then, gradually, add the dry ingredients (flour, salt, black pepper) and repeat the squeezing motion, allowing the flour to blend in. Repeat the process until you’ve used all the flour and cleaned it from the walls.

Shaping the gnocchi

Form the dough into a ball and place it on a lightly floured worktop. Gently press it down and dust the top with flour too. Once your dough looks like a disc, cut it with a paring knife into 8 even-sized slices.

Roll each portion in flour until you get cylinders of an even thickness.

Cut each cylinder into even-sized pieces to form the gnocchi. Once you cut into the dough, push the gnocchi with the flat side of your knife away from the cylinder. This motion will prevent them from sticking to the worktop.

Transfer the gnocchi to the previously prepared baking tray. You will notice that the dough is still slightly sticky, but that is precisely how it should be. Adding more flour in the process would make the gnocchi chewy instead of light and soft.

Once the water is boiling, lightly salt it and wait for it to come back to a boil. Add in your gnocchi and cook them until they rise to the surface, which will take about a minute.
Take the gnocchi out using a slotted spoon and transfer them directly into the sauce.

Can I freeze goat cheese gnocchi?

In case you’ve made more gnocchi than you need at this point, you can also freeze them. Prepare a container lined with baking paper, and once the gnocchi are cooked, transfer them to a tray, ensuring the gnocchi are not touching one another. If adding another layer, separate them with another piece of baking paper.
Freeze your gnocchi for 20-30 minutes, and once they firm up a bit, transfer them to a smaller container. The two-step freezing process will prevent them from sticking to one another in the freezer.

How to prepare broad beans

Like other legumes, broad beans have a pod that hides little seeds inside. The seeds have an outer seed coat and a meaty part called a cotyledon. When the plant is very young, all those three parts are edible and extremely tasty. Still, when mature, the pods and the seed coat become quite fibrous, and the most delicious part becomes the cotyledon.

The best indicator that you have mature broad beans is the furry inside of the pod. On the other hand, young broad beans will have a thin pod and a very thin seed coat surrounding the cotyledon.

Removing the pods

Cleaning broad beans takes some time, but I find it so therapeutic and beautiful.
Start cutting off the end of the pod from the side it was holding to the plant. Stop right at the end, gently press the knife down and pull the pod towards you to remove the fibrous thread along the pod.

Score the pod along that line, open it up and take the seeds out.

If you want to skip this step and make the process faster, you can also buy frozen broad beans that are already podded. Since broad beans season is relatively short, this is also a great way to use them in your diet more often and longer.

Blanching broad beans

Once your broad beans are podded, it is time to blanch them to free them out of their seed coat. Place your broad beans in boiling water and cook them for 5-6 minutes.
If your broad beans are smaller or around 2 cm long, cook them shorter; 3-4 minutes will be enough.

While the broad beans are cooking, prepare a bowl of ice-cold water. Once done, submerge them in and leave them to cool down. Refreshing the broad beans is essential for two things: it will stop the cooking process, and it will allow broad beans to keep their vibrant colour.

Removing the seed coat

To remove the seed coat, pierce each bean on its concave side and push out the cotyledon. I prefer keeping the broad beans in the water while removing their seed coat, but you can also strain them first before doing so.

And this is how you get perfectly cooked broad beans ready to toss into a salad, stew, enjoy as a side dish or add to this goat cheese gnocchi recipe. They don’t require additional cooking, only gently reheating them if eaten warm.

Get more vegetarian lunch ideas!

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