Baked smoked haddock with gnocchi & greens

This is a recipe from my book, I will post one every week or so. I'll start with one of my favourites.

Smoked haddock has a gutsy character, pushing it to prominence in any dish it chooses to star in. Here, pillows of gnocchi and delicate green vegetables act as supporting roles in a dish that might just become your ‘new fish pie.’

prep time 10 minutes              
cook time 35 minutes

serves 3–4

500g fresh gnocchi

200g baby courgettes, sliced at an angle into 0.5cm rounds, or 2 small courgettes, halved down the middle and chopped into crescents

250g asparagus, cut into 2cm lengths

200ml full-fat crème fraiche

1 tablespoon dill, finely chopped

350g smoked haddock, skinned and cut into 2.5cm pieces

4 tablespoons parmesan, freshly grated

Sea salt and freshly ground black pepper

1 One piece of advice, get everything ready because once you get going, this can be quite a quick recipe! Make sure you have a large, shallow pot that can go both on the hob and in the oven.

2 Preheat the oven to 200°c/gas mark 6.

3 Fill your pot with water and place on a high heat. Bring to the boil and add the gnocchi, courgettes and asparagus. Cook for 3 minutes, no more, no less, and drain.

4 Return the cooked gnocchi and vegetables to the pot and stir in the crème fraiche and dill. Next, a little more gently, add the pieces of smoked haddock. Combine until all the ingredients are evenly distributed and then give the dish a good season with black pepper and a little salt.

5 Scatter with parmesan and cook, covered, in the oven for 15–20 minutes, until the vegetables have softened but still retain a little bite. That’s it… now you can put your feet up while your pot is happily cooking.

Tip – a word of warning: don’t use half fat crème fraiche as sadly it will split during cooking.