WINTER PARK, Fla. — Pumpkin season is here, and that fall-time flavor gets incorporated into all kinds of sweet and savory concoctions. That includes the gnocchi at a made-in-Manhattan tavern that’s now also in Hannibal Square in Winter Park.

Nibaldo Urdaneta is Park Avenue Tavern’s executive chef. He moved to Central Florida from Venezuela about six years ago.

“I was born from a butcher’s family,” he said. “So everything’s about food in my family.”

Urdaneta has about 12 years under his belt as a chef. He only recently got the top job at Park Avenue Tavern and said he enjoys creating New American-style dishes, like Pumpkin Gnocchi. This dish is “autumn” all rolled up in pumpkin-enhanced pillows.

Let’s cook!

Park Avenue Tavern’s Pumpkin Gnocchi

Ingredients

  • 8 ounces pumpkin gnocchi
  • 8 ounces Meyer lemon velouté (sauce)
  • 2 ounces white wine
  • 4 ounces freshly grated Parmesan cheese
  • 2 ounces toasted breadcrumbs
  • Fried sage for each gnocchi
  • 3 slices pickled shallot
  • 1 pound all-purpose flour
  • 1 butternut squash each

Instructions

  1. For the gnocchi, roast butternut squash, and then process it together with cheese and flour. Knead all these ingredients, and form a dough by hand.
  2. Let the dough rest for a few minutes, and then cut and shape the gnocchi.
  3. Put a frying pan on high heat, a little olive oil, and add the gnocchi, and do not touch them for a few seconds until a crust forms. Then brown them.
  4. Once golden, add garlic, shallots and sauté.
  5. Add wine and deglaze.
  6. Add the velouté, reduce until it has the consistency of a sauce, and remove from the heat.
  7. Serve in a bowl.
  8. Top with plenty of grated, and finish with the sage crisps and pickled shallots.
  9. Serves one person.

Bonus Cocktail Recipe: Park Avenue Tavern’s Angry Bee

Ingredients

  • 1.75 ounces of Mezcal
  • .75 ounce of pineapple
  • .75 ounce lemon
  • .75 ounce of hot honey

Instructions

  1. Combine ingredients in a tin.
  2. Shake well.
  3. Pour contents over fresh ice.