The Sunday: Homemade Gnocchi

I find myself continually coming back to this blog and apologizing (to myself really!) for not posting more frequently. However, in thinking about my food over the past few weeks, I haven't really made or eaten anything too exciting. Actually, the continued freeze of winter has driven me more toward alcohol in the past month (my next post will cover wine tasting). A couple of weeks back I made gnocchi from scratch, and the result was a hearty, traditional weekend meal that was fun to make and even more fun to eat.

A while back I made ravioli, an attempt that was new for me because raviolis were not made in my house, they were bought. Gnocchi on the other-hand are not ravioli; gnocchi was made and rolled one by one. My grandmother used to make the dough, then chaos would ensue. My gnocchi were rolled thick and cut large whereas my sister's were rolled thin and cut small. In our competition for whose were better, we all but assured that nothing would cook evenly if put into the same pot! Even today, my sister and I still stand firm on which type are better to this day.

Paired with fresh tomato sauce, you'll have the best Sunday meal and enjoy the process of making it. The recipe is simple and the method to make them even simpler. You can perfect your recipe to your liking, but the one below has been improved and tweaked for decades. If your nervous about the process, check out this nice video from Saveur magazine on making a classic Gnocchi al Pomodoro:

Recipe

   

· 6 large potatoes

· 1 teaspoon salt

· 1/8 cup oil (as needed)

· 1 egg

· 2 1/2 cups flour (semolina or white)

 

1 Boil the potatoes, with skin on, in water until tender. Drain, peel, and mash before cooling in refrigerator for an hour.

2 Either by hand or in a mixer with a dough hook, mix the potatoes, salt, egg, and flour thoroughly. If the mixture begins to look dry, add oil (up to 1/8 cup). 

3 Break off piece of dough to match size of your palm. Roll dough into a rope and cut gnocchi into 1/2" pieces. For design purposes, with your thumb, roll  gnocchi off back of fork to get ridges. Set aside on a floured baking sheet.

4 Boil your gnocchi and take out when they float to top of pot. Pair with sauce and serve.