Tasty side dish or a meal on its own right? Let’s just start making gnocchi and see if it turns out to be a cathedral!
Gnocchi is a varied family of dumplings in Italian cuisine. If anyone knows anything about true Italian cuisine then it’s not at all surprising that gnocchi doesn’t have a fixed set of ingredients nor shape, apart of course, that -as many Italian dish- has to contain wheat flour in some form.
Besides flour or sometimes semolina, eggs, potato, cheese, breadcrumbs, or cornmeal can be added to the dough before rolled out and cut into shapes. Since Italians don’t think that a heap of pasta, or in this case gnocchi, on a plate with nothing else but a drizzle of sauce on top weird, they like to have it as an appetizer before a hearty meal.
Gnocchi also used in a more conventional – or at least a less eyebrow raising way for a first-time overseas observer- as a side dish with something that has meat in it.
Since gnocchi is with Italians since Roman times, it had time to travel around not just Europe, but the world. Countries in South America where Italians migrated developed strong roots with gnocchi while European countries shaped one of the many kinds of gnocchi to their national cuisine.
If we want to stay true to Italian gnocchi and plan to make a lot of them often (or we just like hoard purpose-built kitchen equipment for no apparent reason) then investing in a gnocchi board may be a good idea for those perfect looking creases on the surface.
Otherwise, we can make the stripes with a simple but preferably thin ended fork. If we couldn’t bother with such nonsense, due to time constrains put on us by family members on a verge of starvation, we can simply cut then cook the pasta as plain as it is.
It will make little to no difference to the overall gnocchi experience other than it slightly reduces its sauce retaining capabilities that we can compensate by eating it with a spoon if it is really necessary.
Once we dive into the art of gnocchi making and let its murky stream carry us to unknown waters, myriad of possibilities open up that was unimaginable before.
It may not hit us instantly when we try our very first, rubbery, springy, yet surprisingly soft pieces of cooked pasta what’s the fuss about it.
Some may see the light of change over the horizon instantly, like great artist when they emerge from a trans with a clear vision no one else could see before, which is in the case of gnocchi a dopamine hit in the brain caused by the carbs in flour and potato.
For most of us though, gnocchi in its plainest cooked form is just like a messy construction site (with pain in the neck during rush hour), that we hope turns out something colossal, once truly dressed up in its final form. Luckily, we don’t have to wait 150 years to learn that it does.
Ingredients
- 1lb / 500g Potato
- 1½ cup / 200g Flour
- 1 piece / 60g Egg (optional)
- 1 teaspoon / 5g Salt
How to make Gnocchi
- Cook the potatoes until piercing them through with a knife gives little to no resistance.
- Peel the potatoes then mash them.
- Mix in flour, egg and salt. This is the time to add all sort of other ingredients, like spices and herbs. Also this is the time to make substitutions, except if we swapped ricotta with potatoes because we didn’t have to cook the potatoes in the first case.
- Flour hands, grab a ball of dough and roll it out on a mildly floured surface. Too floury surface will make it harder to roll the dough out while less flour makes it stick, so we have to find the optimal amount we can work with.
- Cut the rolled out dough into desired size. The cooked dough will at least double in size so count with that.
- Stripe the gnocchi with a fork or the special gnocchi board if desired. Place the gnocchi into boiling water.
- Cook until they come up to the surface. Sometimes they stick to the bottom so run a spoon around once a couple of them emerges to ensure nobody is left behind.
- Take gnocchi out and let drip. To avoid stick them together rinse the surface starch off under running water. It cools them off a bit but that shouldn’t be a problem given that they have enough inner heat to last until plated.
Enjoy!
Gnocchi dishes
Butter fried gnocchi
- Heat butter in a skillet. Add herbs of choice or just salt and pepper.
- Fry gnocchi until golden brown on both sides.
Onion sour cream gnocchi
- Caramelize onion. This may take 15 minutes so it’s good to make a big batch and keep it in the fridge for occasions like this.
- Heat butter in a skillet then fry gnocchi until golden brown on both sides.
- Mix in caramelized onion, salt and paprika.
- Serve and top with sour cream.
Gnocchi soup
- Heat oil in a pot and caramelize diced onions, carrots and celery.
- Mix in salt, pepper, diced garlic and paprika. (If gnocchi is already cooked add flour to thicken up the soup a bit if desired.)
- Mix in vegetables of choice. Pull it up with water and cook until the vegetables are tender.
- Add in gnocchi. Cook until gnocchi comes up to the top.
- Take it off heat, let it cool a bit and serve.
Gnocchi Recipe
Ingredients
- 1 lb Potato
- 1½ cup Flour
- 1 piece Egg optional
- 1 teaspoon Salt
Instructions
- Cook the potatoes until piercing them through with a knife gives little to no resistance.
- Peel the potatoes then mash them.
- Mix in flour, egg and salt. This is the time to add all sort of other ingredients, like spices and herbs. Also this is the time to make substitutions, except if we swapped ricotta with potatoes because we didn’t have to cook the potatoes in the first case.
- Flour hands, grab a ball of dough and roll it out on a mildly floured surface. Too floury surface will make it harder to roll the dough out while less flour makes it stick, so we have to find the optimal amount we can work with.
- Cut the rolled out dough into desired size. The cooked dough will at least double in size so count with that.
- Stripe the gnocchi with a fork or the special gnocchi board if desired. Place the gnocchi into boiling water.
- Cook until they come up to the surface. Sometimes they stick to the bottom so run a spoon around once a couple of them emerges to ensure nobody is left behind.
- Take gnocchi out and let drip. To avoid stick them together rinse the surface starch off under running water. It cools them off a bit but that shouldn’t be a problem given that they have enough inner heat to last until plated.
Notes
Pin now, Enjoy later!
