Gnocchi'n on Heaven's Door

Lest you think I was not a proper wife and didn't make something FABULOUS for our 1-year anniversary, I give you dinner, Guns 'n Roses style. Having become the recent owner of a ricer, and having some fingerling potatoes growing sad and forgotten in our veggie basket - gnocchi was to be the new recipe of the evening.

Have you ever had gnocchi? It's pasta. Made from potatoes. And done correctly they are light and airy and wonderful. The best gnocchi I ever had was in London's Notting Hill neighborhood. Since then I've wanted to make them, but didn't have a ricer, and like Alton Brown, I hate uni-taskers. Recently I read you could use a regular box grater to grate the cooked potatoes. Makes total sense. I don't know why it didn't occur to me.

We made gnocchi in cooking class a month or so ago so I felt I had my technique down. Potatoes, eggs, flour - that's all there is to it. The starch in the particular potato matters, and I'd always heard fingerlings were the best but all the recipes I seemed to find involved russets. I'm trying those next time because they sure are easy to find and I think the skin comes off easier as it's thicker.

Potato Gnocchi
(serves 4)

1 pound russet potatoes
3-4 egg yolks
1/2 cup grated Parmesan cheese
1/4 teaspoon fresh ground nutmeg
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon fresh ground pepper
1 cup all purpose flour, plus more for dusting

You can bake the potatoes in the oven, or boil them in water. Cook until they are tender when pierced with a skewer. You don't want to overcook them or the flesh will soak up more water, and more water equals more flour. A light hand with the flour is the key here - more flour equals a less tender gnocchi. Don't overwork the dough.

Let the cooked potatoes stand just long enough so that they are cool enough to handle. The hotter the potato when you rice them, the fluffier.

Scrape the peels off the potatoes and rice or grate the potatoes. Spread the riced potatoes out in a thin layer to expose as much of their surface as possible to the air. You should have about 2 cups of potatoes. In a large bowl whisk together 3 egg yolks, the cheese, nutmeg, salt, and pepper. Add the potatoes and mix well. Sprinkle half cup of the flour over the potatoes and using your knuckles, press it into the potatoes. Fold the mass over on itself and press down again. Sprinkle on more flour, little by little, folding and pressing the dough until it just holds together. If the mixture is too dry, add another yolk or a little water. The dough should give under slight pressure. It will feel firm but yielding. To test if the dough is the correct consistency, take a piece and roll it with your hands on a well-floured board into a rope 1/2 inch in diameter. If the dough holds together, it is ready. If not, add more flour, fold and press the dough several more times, and test again.

To form, cut the dough into 4 to 6 pieces. Roll out each piece into a rope about 1/2 inch thick. Cut into 1/2 inch thick pieces and lightly flour any sticky sides. You'll now form them into dumplings with the ridges that are familiar to gnocchi. The ridges are what helps sauce stick. I doubt you have a gnocchi board - the tines of a form work just as well. Rest the fork upside down and at a 45 degree angle. Hold the gnocchi to the fork with your thumb and with light pressure press down and away from you. The gnocchi will roll away down the fork and get the impression from the tines. It will be slightly curved. Don't worry, it will take practice to get the right force and motion.






Rope for cutting








At this point you can lightly dust the gnocchi, place on a cookie sheet in the freezer, and freeze for later use. Simply move them to a ziptop bag when they are frozen through. Or you can bring a large pot of salted water to boil to cook them. They only need about 90 seconds to cook. Place them in the boiling water and when they float to the top, they are done. Use a skimmer or strainer to fish them out and dump into prepared sauce.

Frozen gnocchi can be placed in boiling water for cooking and remove when they have floated to the top - slightly longer than fresh gnocchi.

Sauces should be prepared and kept barely warm to simply coat the gnocchi and heat them through. I did a very simple brown butter coating with another grating of Parmesan cheese and a sprinkling of kosher salt. A simple cheese cream sauce, a light marinara, or a pesto would also be excellent. Next time I'll be doing the basil pesto when the basil in the garden gets mature enough.

These took a long time from start to finish (being about an hour or so) but were well worth it considering how long I've waited to make them myself. They had a really strong potato taste plain, but I think switching to russets will help. Next time I'll watch the flour content more to try and make them even lighter. They were really good and went well as a side dish to our pork loin and Italian squash.