Gnocchi

As a kid I thought gnocchi was really fancy.  It wasn't like regular pasta... it was like a little pouch of carb-y goodness.  Come to find out, it's made out of potatoes... one of my favorite foods.  It's commonly served with pesto because it coats the gnocchi better than a red sauce (though ragu is a pretty commonly used red sauce with gnocchi).  Since I originally posted this over a year ago, I've improved my gnocchi and pesto recipes.  I've actually moved the pesto recipe here.






Ingredients
- 1 to 2 lbs of potatoes
- 2 TBL of water
- 1 egg
- 1 cup flour 

For the potatoes, one large or two medium sized Russet potatoes will probably be sufficient.  But I've made gnocchi with smaller red-skin potatoes from my garden as well as purple potatoes from the farmer's market.  The red-skin potatoes I served with pesto, but the purple potatoes I made a browned butter and sage sauce.

1. Boil the potatoes until the skins start to split and peel.  Take the potatoes out and let cool.  While cooling, make the pesto.  Keep the water; you'll need it to cook the gnocchi at the end.

2. Peel the potatoes.  The skins should just come off like an orange peel.  Cut out any eyes or brown spots (it's a lot easier to do this when they're soft then when they're raw).  

3. Mash the potatoes until there are no more chunks.  This can be pretty tough so adding a little water as you go helps.  If you took the pot of water off the heat, now would be a good time to put it back on so that it can get boiling again.

I used a bean masher for this

4.  Once the potatoes are all mashed, add the egg and the flour.  Again, a little at a time until it's no longer sticky.  It'll never be fully not sticky, so don't try to get it that way.  Just so that when the potatoes are fully coated, it looks like dough.

Potato dough

5.  On a floured surface roll out ropes of the potato dough until about 1/2" in diameter.  Cut them into inch long sections.  Smooth out the edges so the edges are round as well.  Using a gnocchi board or a fork, rough up the surface.  Then drop them into the boiling water.  The gnocchi will float to the surface when they're done.  Pull them out and let them drain before serving.

Roughing up the surface of the gnocchi (step 5 above) actually has purpose.  The potato dough is pretty smooth once cooked, and sauces tend to just slide right off.  But imprinting the gnocchi, the grooves give sauces something to hold on to.  Gnocchi boards are available at most specialty kitchen stores.  Or in Italy (mine was like 5euro in Rome's Campo di Fiori).  Or just use the tines of a fork instead.

Be careful when you mix in pasta sauce because they are pretty delicate.  If plating as part of a presentation meal, try just placing the sauce on top and allow each guest to mix themselves.

Enjoy!