Pan fried gnocchi with pumpkin = delicious autumnal goodness

I haven't watched as much of this season's Masterchef as I would like to, even though episodes are available on-line (http://www.masterchef.com.au/).  However I did see the episode where the contestants had to cook Matt Moran's pan-fried quail with gnocchi, roast pumpkin, brown butter and sage.  Quail's not really my thing but I was interested in the pan-friend gnocchi.  I asked my friend Bridie who is an amazing chef (and who has answered many of my cooking questions over the years!) for her gnocchi recipe as she has wowed customers and food critics with it before.  Her main hint was to use desiree potatoes, and I found some great organic ones at the South Melbourne Market.  I then found that the latest Delicious magazine has a recipe for gnocchi where the potatoes are baked rather than boiled, so I incorporated this technique into the recipe - it resulted in wonderfully light fluffy potatoes.  For the rest of the recipe I added some pan-fried pumpkin, rocket, walnuts and blue cheese.  Narelle brought the red wine and we had a great autumnal dinner!

Pan-fried Gnocchi and Pumpkin with Rocket, Walnuts and Blue Cheese

Serves 4

For the gnocchi:
1 kg desiree potatoes with the skins on
2 cups salt
1/2 kg flour
salt and pepper
100gm butter
3 egg yolks
Olive oil
 
For the rest:
500g pumpkin, cut into 1cm cubes
2 T cooking oil
1/2 cup walnuts
150g blue cheese
2 cups rocket
Olive oil
 
1. Spread the salt on a baking tray so it is about 1cm thick.  Prick each potato several times with a fork and bake at 180 degrees until tender. 
 
2. While the potatoes are cooking, blanch the pumpkin cubes for approximately 3 minutes in salted boiling water. Refresh in ice water and then drain.
 
3. Toast the walnuts in a frypan until golden.
 
4. Once the potatoes are cooked, allow to cool a bit, cut in half and scoop the potato from the skins.
 
5. Mash the potatoes and put through a potato ricer if you have one.  Season with salt and pepper and add the flour, melted butter and egg yolks to form a soft dough.
 
6. Spread the dough on a floured board, knead a little and then divide it into 6 pieces.  Roll each piece out until it is 2cm thick and cut into 2cm pieces.  Place on a single layer on a tray and set aside.
 
7. Boil the gnocchi for one minute.  You don't need to wait for all the gnocchi to float to the top like you do with store-bought gnocchi.  Refresh in iced water, drain and then toss with a little bit of extra virgin olive oil.
 
8. Heat the cooking oil in a fry pan, fry the pumpkin 'til golden, then remove and fry the gnocchi 'til golden. 
 
9. Divide the rocket onto 4 plates, and add pumpkin, gnocchi, walnuts and crumbled blue vein cheese.  Drizzle with olive oil.