Wednesday, June 24, 2009

Mmmm... gnocchi

For whatever reason, Phineas and I were on a picture-taking roll last night. So, here is the gnocchi making adventure in pictures.

Mound up your grated/riced potatoes and make a well in the middle.

After kneading in an egg, salt, pepper and nutmeg, add 1/4 c of parmesan.

Then add flour, 1/2 c at a time or as needed. (We used about 1 1/4 c.) Phineas was a sweetie and kneaded the flour in for me since I hate touching raw flour. (eeeewwwwww).

Gather the dough into a ball and cut it into 6 pieces.

Roll each piece of dough into a half inch log and then cut half inch pieces. Then shape your gnocchi by rolling the pieces into balls and give them their characteristic lines by rolling them down the back of a fork with your thumb.

Cook them exactly like you would cook pasta. About a minute after they float, they are done.

And now for the sauce, made almost entirely of leftovers!

While the gnocchi were cooking, I sauteed some fresh chopped sage in a little butter and then added some remnants of Serrano ham (you could use proscuitto or bacon) that were left from the weekend.

When the butter was browned and the whole thing was fragrant, I added some (again, leftover) half and half and Parmesan cheese. (Really, I don't think I could cook without Parmesan. It is an absolute staple for me for weeknight cooking.)

Reduce the sauce until it is thickened to your liking and adjust the salt/pepper. Add the drained gnocchi to the pan. I also added a little of the cooking water since my sauce had thickened a bit too much.

Enjoy your gnocchi with a side of broccoli rabe or a nice salad. Buon Appetito!

The gnocchi were light and delicious. I think they could have been lighter if I had used a ricer instead of a grater to make the potato more fine. And I would add more salt to the dough (2 tsp). The only real challenge was that it took a while to get the hang of shaping the gnocchi. Half came out rather ugly and misshapen. But they all tasted great!

This was a truly over-the-top weeknight meal. However, cooking the potatoes the day before made the gnocchi making much more manageable and less time consuming (one hour from ingredients to plating up). It really did not take long for the dough to come together. What I would recommend is making a big batch of gnocchi and freezing it for weeknight use, which is what we did with the left over half of the batch that we did not cook up.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

I am so hungry now that I read the outcome. MMMM

Mar-Mar

Clio said...

Yeah, me too! Writing the post made my mouth water. I don't know how long the gnocchi in my freezer will survive!