Gnocchi is an Italian dish similar to a dumpling. The name gnocchi is pronounced "nyo-key". Gnocchi can be made from a variety of ingredients, including cheese gnocchi, but potato is the most common. Gnocchi at authentic Italian restaurants are a real treat, and those who have tried to make this meal at home with frozen gnocchi are usually sadly disappointed.
The following recipe is very straightforward and simple, requires few ingredients, can be made with your choice of sauce, and can be frozen. The only downside of making gnocchi from scratch is that it can be a bit time consuming and hard work.
Basic Gnocchi Ingredients
- 1 pound of potatoes
- 1 3/4 cup flour, plus extra for your work surface
- 1 egg
- Salt
Instructions for Making Gnocchi
- Scrub and peel the potatoes. Place them in a large pot full of water (with a sprinkling of salt) and bring to a boil. Boil the potatoes until they are cooked and soft, about 20 minutes.
- Drain the potatoes, rice them (or mash them) and keep them hot by placing a cover over the bowl.
- Crack the egg into a second bowl.
- Add the 1 3/4 cup of flour to the bowl with the egg.
- Add the potatoes to the egg and flour.
- Mix the potatoes, flour, and egg into a soft plastic dough. Knead it with your hands to make sure all lumps have been removed.
- On a lightly floured surface, take a hunk of the dough and roll it into a one-inch thick worm shape. For stylistic purposes, you can take a fork and indent the top of the dough with parallel lines.
- Then cut the worm-shaped dough into one-inch pieces. Set aside and repeat with the remaining dough.
- If you want to freeze the gnocchi, do so now. First place the gnocchi flat on a tray to freeze into separate pieces, then later when they are all frozen put them in a storage bag. If you freeze the gnocchi lumped in a bowl, they will lose their separate shapes and return to a big pile of dough.
- If cooking the gnocchi immediately, set a large pot of water to boil. Add the gnocchi when the water has started to boil and let it cook until the gnocchi has risen to the top.
- Drain and serve immediately with your favorite sauce.
Tomato or Spaghetti Sauce Choices for Gnocchi
If you have a favorite store-bought spaghetti sauce, by all means, use it. Or spice it up by first browning some ground Italian sausage and adding that to the sauce. For homemade spaghetti sauce from fresh garden tomatoes, try these two unique recipes.
Mangia!
 |
