Seared Swordfish & Gnocchi

Sometimes a particular dish just grabs you. It’s not better nor worse than others. Just something about it that screams, “make me!”

So it was the other morning. I was watching an episode of Emeril’s Florida. If you haven’t seen it, it’s a culinary tour of the Sunshine State, subsidized by the Florida tourism folks. Each week, Emeril focuses on the restaurants and food-related businesses in one city or region.

This time he was in South Walton Beach. I never did catch the name of the restaurant. But among the sample dishes the chef prepared was seared swordfish on a bed of butternut squash gnocchi, swimming in a leek veloute, and topped with crispy fried leeks.

Something just resonated, and I decided to make it.

The complete recipe, as Emeril makes it, is available at the Food Network site. But I made some changes. Here’s how I went about it.

For starters, I used Lidia Bastianich’s recipe for the butternut squash gnocchi. Technically, this is merely a dumpling, not the light pillows one expects from gnocchi. But it is faster and simpler to make than traditional gnocchi. And, as it turns out works well with the dish.

Chances are they could be lightened up by cutting back on the flour:

Gnocchi di Zucca
Butternut Squash Gnocchi

1 butternut squash, about 1 ½ lbs (or 1 ½ cups puree)
2 eggs, beaten
1 ¼ tsp salt
1 ½ cups flour

Halve the squash, scoop out the seeds, wrap it loosely in foil, place on a baking sheet, and bake until tender when pierced, about 35 minutes. Scoop out the pulp from the skin directly into a fine sieve. Set the sieve over a bowl to catch the liquids cover, and allow the squash to drain overnight in the refrigerator.

Next day, puree the squash in a food processor, transfer the puree to a large bowl, and add the eggs and salt. Mix well, add the flour, and blend thoroughly. The dough should be soft and quite sticky.

Bring a large pot of water to the boil. Using a teaspoon, scoop up some of the dough and slide it into the water. Cook the gnocchi in batches of ten to fifteen, poaching them for 2 minutes after they rise to the surface.

Remove with a slotted spoon and transfer to a bowl of ice water. Repeat until all dough is used. Then drain the gnocchi. Set aside.

Although the chef called the next part of the dish a veloute, and Emeril calls it a leek sauce, it’s actually more of a broth. Keep that in mind, and don’t expect it to thicken much.

Leek Broth

1 oz butter
1 shallot, sliced
½ leek, greens removed, diced
3 oz white wine
½ cup chicken stock
¼ cup heavy cream
Kosher or sea salt

Melt the butter in a small saucepan over medium-low heat, then add the shallots and leeks and sweat without achieving any color, five minutes. Add the wine and reduce 2-3 minutes. Add the stock, lower the heat, and simmer 5 minutes. Add the cream and cook 3-5 minutes. Transfer the sauce to a blender, process until smooth, and adjust the seasoning. Set aside and keep warm

You’re going to cook the fish and finish the dish simultaneously. Which means you’ll be cooking with two pans at once. Emeril says to use two pans, but I worked with a large saucier for the gnocchi.

1 oz oil
1 oz butter
2 pieces swordfish, about 6 oz each
Salt and pepper
1 oz chopped shallot
½ oz (approx.) fresh parsley and thyme leaves, chopped
Fried leeks (optional)

Heat the two pans over medium-high heat, one with the butter and one with the oil.

Sprinkle the fish with salt and pepper, and sear in the oiled pan. Once it is seared, flip the fish, lower the heat, and continue cooking until fish is cooked through.

In the other pan, sweat the shallots, then add the gnocchi and heat through. Adjust the seasoning, then stir in the herbs.

Caution: Monitor the gnocchi carefully, because it has a tendency to stick.

Reheat the broth if necessary.

To serve: Arrange some of the gnocchi in a shallow bowl. Top with a piece of fish. Ladle some of the broth into the bowl. Top the fish with a garnish of fried leeks if desired.

All in all, this is a time consuming dish to prepare. But the results are well worth the effort.

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It really is a good plate of food, Dan. Just remember that it's very time consuming, because of the various components.

I'd bet, though, you could make the broth the day before, then slowly heat it when ready for service. Probably could make the gnocchi ahead, and refrigerate them, as well.

This is another of those dishes that would work with a diversity of fishes. I can envision it with grouper, for instance, or some of the stronger fish, like mackerel or bluefish. Or even a noisette of salmon. And so forth.

I'd say trout, yes. But the others might tend to flake apart. Or maybe not, if you leave the skin on?

Wow that looks amazing (i can see it in my head ).