Gnocchi

Last night for dinner, I wanted to make gnocchi. Gnocchi are italian potato dumplings, and when serving you treat them like pasta and serve them with sauce. I'd had gnocchi in restaurants and it was delicious, and the kind you can buy premade at the store just isn't the same. However, I soon found that making gnocchi is a long and tedious process. I spent 5 hours making dinner last night. In the end it was delicious, but it was quite the process.

I made a marinara sauce from scratch to go on top, because I didn't feel like getting creative and thinking of something else. But the gnocchi are very versatile and could go with a ton of other sauces.

One thing I would like to point out: the recipe originally said it would serve two, so I doubled it to make enough for the family. The doubled recipe made enough to feed an army, and trying to mash 6 potatoes at a time proved to be a challenge. The original recipe is plenty to feed four, so in my photos, there is twice as much as necessary.

First you take some potatoes and wash them off and poke them all over with a fork.

Then bake them until they are soft. This is where the recipe failed me. It said bake them for 45 minutes, which was definitely not enough. Once I peeled them and tried to mash them, it became apparent that the potatoes were not nearly soft enough, so I had to try and steam them some more in the microwave until they were cooked enough. But anyway, once they are soft, take them out and peel them.

This was also a difficult process. The potatoes were extremely hot and I burned my fingers while trying to peel them. I had to have my dad help me out. When they are peeled, mash them up like you would if you were making mashed potatoes.

Then add an egg yolk and some salt. When that is mixed in, add some flour and mash it all together.

 The final dough should look like this:

Now take handfuls of the dough and roll them out into a rope on a floured surface. Then, cut them into 1-inch pieces.

Now boil the gnocchi in batches. Put around a dozen or so into boiling water, and when they float to the top, cook them two minutes more.

Take them out with a slotted spoon and set aside.

Now sautee them in a skillet with some butter until they are brown.

They kind of fell apart in this step, as you can see, because my pan is no longer effectively nonstick and they got a little stuck, but if you work hard enough, you can get them brown. Then take them out and serve them with some sauce :)

Yummy! They were so good. So much better than the pre-made ones at the store. They are soft and they melt in your mouth.

The marinara sauce will be a separate post because this one is getting to be a bit long. In the future, when I make these again, I will bake the potatoes in advance and make SURE they are soft. I might also boil them. I froze the extra gnocchi, so when I want to prepare them, I will just boil and then sautee them. Much easier than the ordeal I had to go through today.

Here's the recipe:

Gnocchi

Ingredients:

3 russet potatoes

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 egg yolk

3/4 cup flour

Butter

Instructions:

1. Wash the potatoes and poke them all over with a fork. Bake them until soft at 400 degrees F.
2. While the potatoes are still hot, cut them in half and squeeze the insides into a bowl, discarding the skins. Alternatively, peel them with a knife. Then mash the potatoes with a potato masher or a fork.
3. Add the egg yolk and salt to the bowl and stir them in. Then mix in the flour. I used my hands to do this, because it also kneads the dough a bit.
4. Take a handful of the dough and roll it into a 1/2-inch-thick rope on a floured surface. Cut the rope into 1-inch pieces. Repeat with the remaining dough.
5. Bring a large pot of salted water to a boil. Add a dozen or so gnocchi, and cook for 2 minutes after they float to the surface. Remove with a slotted spoon, and repeat with the remaining gnocchi.
6. Place a few T of butter in a large skillet over medium heat. Add the gnocchi (as many as will fit in a single layer in your pan) and cook, stirring occasionally, for 12-15 minutes, or until lightly browned on two sides. Repeat with the remaining gnocchi.
7. Serve with sauce. Eat.

Source: College Vegetarian Cooking