While not being a fan of tweaking recipes, sometimes you just need to substitute your ingredients. It would be actually difficult to find the right cheese even in Italy. On top of that you can skip the chestnut flour just because you may have a hard time finding it. But of course…what’s the point? Get going and find some, even online.
The flavors stuck in my head since I visited val Vigezzo in Piemonte (Italy) years ago during college.
It’s chestnut gnocchi with cheese and bacon but there’s a unique earthiness associated with this dish.
The original cheese was a local “nostrano”, undefined for “made here”.  Slightly creamy and young with a subtle buttery texture and great texture thanks to the great pastures available in val Vigezzo and most probably the good view cows get since val Vigezzo is also called “painters’ valley” for the beautiful landscapes.

I actually pair these chestnut gnocchi with Castelmagno cheese or Castelrosso, a rather inexpensive cousin.

Murray’s Cheese defines Castelrosso: this pasteurized red cow’s milk cheese is a cousin of the famous King of Italian cheeses, Castelmagno from Piemonte, in NE Italy. Similar in apppearance, it has a dry, crumbly, snowy white paste, which is a bit creamier and more complex beneath the natural thick, gray rind smattered with yellow and red mold. The flavor is mild: lactic and buttery, with a full fungal finish. Its residual tang is similar to Lancashire and other English cheddar-styles. The straightforward flavors are an ideal foil to Italian condiments such as grape mostarda and chestnut honey.

Now, I just love it when melted with some milk into a luscious creamy sauce that brings out the full earthy potential.

So here is the math for the gnocchi:

• 500 g russet potatoes
• 120 g flour
• 40 g chestnut flour
• 1 egg

Boil potatoes, skin on, until soft and let on a plate to dry for 10 minutes. Peel, mash and mix with the flours with a good hefty pinch of salt. Beat the egg, incorporate in the dough and let rest covered with foil for 30 minutes. Roll the dough, cut the gnocchi and texture them with a fork (or with a cheese grater as my Grandma does).
Boil some water, add salt, and cook the gnocchi until they float on the surface then remove them in batches and add them to the sauce. You can thin out the sauce by adding some of the starchy water used to cook the gnocchi. A dash of white pepper and you’re good to go.

• 3 ears of corn, kernels cut from cobs and cobbs chopped (1-inch pieces)
• 1 quart whole milk
• 1 cup heavy cream
• ½ cup sugar
• 5 large egg yolks

Cook corn kernels with cobs, milk, cream and sugar in a large, heavy saucepan over low heat, stirring occasionally until sugar has dissolved. Simmer, uncovered, 1 hour.

Discrd corn cobs. Puree corn mixture in batches in a blender until smooth.

Lightly beat yolks in a large bowl. SLowly add hot corn mixture, whisking. Return mixture to saucepan and cook over low heat, stirring constantly with a wooden spoon, until custard is slightly thickened and registers 170ºF (do not let it boil).

Immediately strain the custard through a fine-mesh sieve into a metal bowl, pressing on and then discarding solids. Chill at least 6 hours. Freeze custard in an ice cream maker, in batches if necessary. Transfer to freezer, to firm up at least 3 hours.

From the Stone Barns brochure Summer 09.

Aw yeah! Second successful, sold out event.

2.5 % w/w calcium gluconate (+ 0.3/0.5 % w/w xanthan gum)

Immersion blender, rest to remove bubbles or vacuum.

Alginate bath = 0.5 % sodium alginate w/v

2-3 minutes

~ water bath

0.4 % w/w

3-2-1 w/w (flour / butter / water)

1 ½ cups flour / 1 stick of butter (cold) / 5 tbs ice-cold water / ½ tsp salt.

Bingo!

Pan seared scallops lightly seasoned with sweet paprika topped with uni foam and cilantro microgreens. Base of black garlic vichyssoise. Neutral, slightly garlicky croutons.