Sheep's milk cheese gnocchi on basil scented pea puree, parma ham-walnut crumble, parsley foam and fava bean ragout

It's been snowing all day long and meanwhile everything turned white! Was that sunny and warm Sunday only a dream? It seems so! So until spring decides to come back again and finally stay for a while, at least I can turn my plate into green! Most of the ingredients came out of the freezer like the fava beans, peas and the sheep's milk cheese. In this case I am talking about the Slovakian bryndza that is both available made of cow or sheep milk. It is really hard to find it here in Switzerland, therefore my mom always brings me from Hungary. So if you are not able to find it made of sheep milk, then use goat's milk cheese instead. I suggest the same for the spinach rolls that I posted some days ago. The components of this dish go so well together! I am especially in love with the walnut-parma ham crumble that is just amazing together with the pea puree. Of course the ragout would be best with morels, but I had no dried ones left and fresh is not yet available, at least not local ones. The whole thing is complete with fresh parmesan cheese, parsley foam and a few basil leaves.

Ingredients:
for the gnocchi:
125 g bryndza or goat's milk cheese
50-70 g white spelt flour
1 egg white
1 tablespoon butter
1 teaspoon olive oil
salt
pepper

for the pea puree:
150 g pea
enough stock so that the peas are covered
1 teaspoon butter
5-6 basil leaves
sal
pepper
for the parsley foam:
100 ml heavy cream
50 g freshly grated parmesan
1/2 bunc parsley
salt
pepper

for the parma ham - walnut crumble:
3 slices of parma ham
5-6 walnuts
2-3 black peppercorns

For the gnocchi knead all the ingredients together, cut it in half and roll out about 1 cm thick and slice it about 1,5 cm long. Cook gnocchi in salted simmering water, then let it dry on kitchen paper. Fry in the mixture of butter and olive oil until golden brown.

For the puree cook peas in stock for a few minutes. Drain but reserve some of the stock. Puree pea with butter and as much stock as needed to achieve the desired consistency. Mash puree through a fine sieve, season with salt and pepper and keep it warm until serving.

For the foam bring cream to the boil, stir in the cheese and as soon as it is molten add parsley and blend it. Season with salt and pepper and foam it with a blender right before serving.

For the crumble preheat the oven to 150°C and dry ham. Let it cool and break into pieces. Crumble ham, walnut and black pepper in a mortar.
For the vegetable ragout simply sautee fava beans, peas, mushroom and green aspararagus (once it is in season) and mix it with the gnocchi before serving. Season with salt, pepper and chervil.