As part of the collaboration #NoodleNovember2023 I had footage I wanted to use from last year. When I went to look for it it had disappeared off my pc so in a blind panic due to not being paid for a couple of weeks and only having what we have in the house to use I decided to make use of our leftovers. In that moment this amazing dish was born that turned leftovers that would’ve made 1 meal for 3 people I ended up making a meal that made 8 portions.

What I had to use was some leftover beef roast from a few days earlier, some onion gravy and mashed potatoes from the day before with a few wonky and sad looking veg at the back of the fridge and 2 tins of chopped tomatoes and whatever was in the dry store pantry. The whole thing cost me under £2 and made use of some pretty heftily expensive leftovers that it felt criminal to waste.

Beef Ragu and Gnocchi

INGREDIENTS

Leftover Roast Beef (we had a 2 Inch / 5cm piece of Sirloin) You could use leftover steak or whatever you have.

2 Cups Leftover Onion Gravy (or whatever gravy you have)

2 Carrots

1 Green Bell Pepper

1 Onion

2 x 400g tins of Chopped Tomatoes or a Jar of Passata or around 800g of Fresh Tomatoes blitzed in the food processor or blender)

Seasonings of your choice (we used 1 Tablespoon Basil, 1 Tablespoon Jarlic, 1 Tablespoon homemade Veg Stock Powder)

Leftover Mashed Potato

Plain Flour (equal to the amount of leftover mash plus some for dusting)

METHOD

Cut up veg into small dice.

Cut up beef into thin strips, keep the fat seperate and use it as your oil in the pan.

Render the beef fat in the slow cooker or pot you are using.

Add in the diced veg and saute for a few moments.

Add your seasonings, and cook through for a couple more minutes.

Add your beef, tomatoes and gravy and mix well.

Place lid on the slow cooker and cook on high for 2 hours or in a 180C/350F/Gas Mark 4 Oven if using a oven pot with a lid.

Meanwhile mix your mash with the flour until you have a good non sticky dough.

Make the dough into more manageable size pieces.

Roll each piece into a rope and cut small bite sized pieces off.

Roll each piece across the back of a fork and place in a single layer on a baking sheet that has been dusted in flour.

Once your Beef is within 10 minutes to serve. Place a large pot 3/4’s filled with water to boil. With 1 Tablespoon Salt in the water.

Place the gnocchi in the pot to cook but don’t dump them all in at once. Place them carefully one by one until all from one tray is in the pot.

Once they have started to float continue to cook for 2 minutes and then use a strainer spoon or seive to lift out so you can do the next batch.

Serve Gnocchi topped with the Beef Ragu and grate Parmesan over the top if you wish.

NOTE: For our second day of this meal Tanny wanted Rice instead of gnocchi so we did that and today he has taken the rest to work with him for lunch. I call that a MAJOR win !!! That means between the small bowl we had for breakfast yesterday and the other meals we managed to get 8 full meals out of something that would’ve only given us 1 meal if we had had it as the leftovers looked.

We also have now loads of leftover rice for other meals AND a tray of gnocchi leftover which is around 4 servings to deep fry and serve as a dipping side dish with soup tomorrow.

I cannot stress enough just how making meals out of leftovers can save you money and make meals to last for days if you start looking at them in another way.