The bond between a mother and daughter is special, but especially special when they share a love for creativity. Today, we share a unique made-from-scratch recipe for Avocado Gnocchi, researched, cooked and styled by a 13-year-old, who loves Italian cuisine. This creative endeavor was photographed by her mother, Karthika Gupta.From Karthika,

My daughter is my absolute pride and joy. I come from a very creative family—my own mother loved to paint and draw with oils and my sister is very creative with quilting, knitting, and crochet. Even my mother-in-law is an incredible cook. I somehow always felt like the creative bug skipped me, so it makes me incredibly happy to see my daughter’s effortless creativity. She is always drawing, and coloring and her desk is very neatly organized. She is a good photographer too for her age. Early on, she expressed a lot of interest when she saw me with my camera. So I taught her some of the basics and enjoy going on photography excursions with her. She has my older camera and totally rocks it!

My daughter’s style has a very real world charm to it. I think its a mix of her age and her innocence. Being Indian but growing up in a western culture she effortlessly infuses the best of both worlds because both cultures are a huge part of who she is. She isn’t afraid of bold colors but infuses a certain simplicity and grace in all that she does so it appears very natural to her and everyone around her.

From Nainika,

I really like avocados so I wanted to make something using that. When I researched what all you can make with avocados, I came across a recipe for spinach gnocchi that looked interesting. I asked my mom if I could use avocado in the recipe and she asked me to try it and see how it would turn out. I really enjoyed experimenting with these new flavors.

For me, gathering all the ingredients and mixing them step by step is a lot of fun. My mom lets me get messy sometimes so I like that. Plus you can really see how everything comes together. I love flavors in any cooking. Things like lemons because of the tanginess they give to a recipe, Vanilla extract because of its sweet smell and mint leaves because of their smell and taste, are some of my favorites.

Recipe – (makes enough for 2-3 people)

Ingredients:

• 1 cup all-purpose flour
• and a few teaspoons of flour for dusting
• 1 egg
• 1 ripe avocado
• 1/2 boiled potato as a binding agent
• salt

Directions:

1. Place all-purpose flour into a deep dish bowl and make a center well.
2. Boil potato and mash coarsely.
3. Add the egg, mashed potato, and avocado in the center of the flour well and start combining the flour from the sides into the center of the well.
4. Once the mix has started to combine roughly, kneed gently by hand, folding to make a ball.
5. If mixture starts becoming sticky, dust a little flour into the dough and combine to form a soft, yet firm dough.
6. Let dough rest 10-15 minutes.
7. Bring a large pot of water to boil and generously salt the water.
8. Divide the dough into smaller balls that are easy to handle and roll out rested dough into thin long rolls.
9. Cut rolls into small long pieces using a blunt knife.
10. Cook the gnocchi in the boiling water for a few minutes until the gnocchi rises to the surface.
11. Drain the water and serve with a side of pesto. Garnish with parmesan cheese if required.

Adding global foods and flavors to your everyday is really easy and fun, and a great way to bring the world to your table and on your plate.

Avocado Gnocchi Inspired by Italy and Italian Cusine

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