Flaherty Wines

One distinctly Chilean food is piñones, usually translated as pine nuts. They aren’t from pine trees, however, but rather the Araucaria, or monkey puzzle tree. The nuts are quite different from Italian pine nuts. Pine nuts have a higher oil and protein content, whereas piñones are starchier, with a texture much like a chestnut. Also like a chestnut, they have to be boiled or roasted and then peeled before they can be eaten. The flavor is more earthy than nutty.

Piñones are harvested from March though May. Since they don’t have a high oil content, they store well without going rancid, so they are available in stores and markets throughout winter. I recently bought a bagful and then was stuck wondering what to do with them. The similarity to chestnuts got me thinking about some chestnut gnocchi I once had in Tuscany, so I thought I would see how that worked. The result was quite tasty. The texture of the gnocci was denser and heavier than pure potato gnocchi, while the earthy flavor was subtle yet distinctive. We tried them both plain (with butter and parmesan) and with a merquén butter. The piñon flavor was more noticeable in the former, but the latter presented a spectacular marrying of the earthy piñon and smoky merquén.

Monkey puzzle gnocchi

350 g (3/4 lb) piñones
2 or 3 potatoes, peeled and boiled
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 egg
1/2 to 1 cup flour
2 to 4 tablespoons butter (to taste)
1/2 teaspoon merquén powder
freshly grated parmesan

Boil the piñones for one hour, then let cool and peel off the outer shell. To peel, I used a knife to cut a vertical slit in one side, then used my thumbnail to peel open the shell. Reserve 10 to 12 piñones for the merquén butter, and process the rest in a food processor as finely as possible (about the texture of ground almonds). Separately, pass the potatoes through a ricer.

Measure two cups of ground piñones and one and a half cups  of riced potatoes. Combine with the salt and egg, then knead in a half cup of flour (or more as necessary to form a workable dough). Knead for a couple of minutes, then form the gnocchi. Working with half the dough at a time, roll it into a snake about the thickness of your thumb. Cut off pieces about an inch long, pinch them in the middle to form a “waist,” then toss in flour. To cook, boil the gnocchi in a large pot of boiling salted water until they all float to the top. Remove with a slotted spoon.

Meanwhile, chop the reserved piñones. Melt the butter and briefly fry the piñones with the merquén. Remove from the heat when the butter starts to brown (be careful not to burn the butter.) Dress the gnocchi with the butter and chopped piñones, and a generous handful of freshly grated parmesan.

Tags: araucaria, gnocchi, monkey puzzle gnocchi, monkey puzzle trees, piñones