Pretty hard to classify this one. Could be a main dish, could be a side dish. Although Italian, and often served stopped with spaghetti sauce, it’s really more potato than pasta. But since it’s Italian, and when you think of Italian, you think of pasta, I guess we’ll call it that?
There really isn’t much to making gnocchi. All you need is:
2 pounds russet potatoes (about three large baking potatoes)
1 egg
1 tsp salt
1 to 1-1/2 cups unbleached flour
Wash the potatoes . Put them in a pot and add cold water to cover them by at least 2 inches. Bring to a boil over medium heat, then boil for 30 minutes.
Let them cool just enough to handle, then rice them. They will be fluffier if you rice them while they’re still hot.
Beat the egg and salt together, pour over the potatoes and gently toss to mix. Then add 1 cup of the flour and gently toss to mix. We want to work the dough as little as possible to make the gnocchi as tender as possible. Now you’ll have a crumbly looking dough.
Now knead the dough just until it can be formed into a soft ball. Add additional flour as necessary to get the right texture. It should feel more like mashed potatoes than dough, but doesn’t stick to your hands. (Or latex gloves, which I always use.)
Lightly dust your work surface, pick up a tennis ball sized piece of dough, and roll it into a rope about 1/2″ to 3/4 I thick. Just like making Play Dough ropes when you were a kid.
Cut your rope into 3/4 inch pieces, about the width of a fork.
You can just stop there, or you can roll each piece down the tines of a fork. That will make them look a little fancier, and leave little ridges to help hold sauce.
And viola! You have gnocchi.
Now just do that ad nauseum. Then you can pop the tray on gnocchi into the freezer. When they’re frozen, transfer to a zip lock plastic bag.
To cook, drop into boiling water and cook until they float. Doesn’t take long. Then you can top them with spaghetti sauce, pesto, whatever you like. They’re pretty good tossed into a skillet with some butter, maybe a little olive oil too if you like. Fry until lightly browned, then serve topped with fresh grated Parmesan cheese.
Another thing you can try with this dough, is making patties and frying it. It’s pretty close to the potato figasa my Noni used to make with leftover mashed potatoes.
Heat some olive oil to 350 degrees. Pat some dough into a circle and drop it into the oil. Poke some holes in the dough with the handle of a wooden spoon.
Cook until golden brown. You’ll see it getting brown around the holes you poked. Then flip it over and brown the other side. Plop it onto a paper towel to drain and lightly pat the top with a paper towel. Then sprinkle with a little salt, pop a beer, and manja tutu. (Eat it all.)
