Potato Gnocchi - Recipe of the Day

Potato Gnocchi - Recipe

How To Make Homemade Potato Gnocchi (Step-by-Step)

Chef Isa presents how to make potato gnocchi

The original and traditional gnocchi (pronounced NYOH-kee), is always totally homemade, by hand, and served with a easy but tasty tomato sauce. The meaning of "gnocchi" is little dumplings. Like many of the best recipes for classic dishes, Mama Isa's gnocchi recipe came from her Italian nonna Grandma Elisa! Nonna's Isa taught her how to make the perfect "gnocchi di patate".

Gnocchi dough contains in its simplest form just 1 kilo of very starchy potatoes (in Italy we call the best potatoes for gnocchi "patate da gnocchi", in USA you could use Jukon Gold or Idaho or other Russet baking potatoes), 00 flour (farina di grano tenero 00, soft as talcum powder and the best brand is MULINO SPADONI GRAN MUGNAIO Farino di Grano Tenero 00 per pasta),  egg, and salt. That's all.

Potato Gnocchi

Exactly how much flour 00 to use is where judgment comes into play. It all depends on the water content of the potatoes, which varies very very significantly!!! Make a great potato loaf can take a person years to master! 

Serves 6
Preparation time: 1 hour
Cooking time: about 15 minutes

INGREDIENTS
servings 6 people

1 kg very starchy potatoes

200-250 g Wheat Flour 00 (the best flour is Molino Spadoni Gran Mugnaio tipo 00 for fresh pasta), extra flour for kneading and rolling

1 organic egg
1/2 teaspoon of fine sea salt

semolina flour, for dusting the board at the end

PREPARATION
Gnocchi dough is made by combining boiled potato, wheat flour 00 for absorbing moisture and providing gluten (and gluten is so important), and 1 egg per kilo of potato to add richness and help bind the gnocchi dough together.  Please remmber don't knead the dough a lot, because it means having to add more wheat flour 00 (so at the end the gnocchi are not fluffy and tender, but heavy and chewy).

Boil the potatoes in salted water, but don't peel them. When the potatoes are tender, drain.

Holding the potatoes in a tea towel, peel off the skins.  Rice the potatoes with a potato ricer (in Italy we have a special tool, "passapatate"). Let them cool in a bowl.

Gradually add the egg and flour and season with salt. Combine the dough with your hands.

Potato Ricer

Working quickly the potato dough, distribute the potato dough evenly across your work wooden surface, then drizzle with just a litte more flour 00.

Potato Gnocchi

Potato Gnocchi

Potato Gnocchi Cooking Class

Potato Gnocchi

The gnocchi dough should be elastic, but not gummy! Make a big potato roll dough as dense as possible using your hands. Working with one section at a time, roll the gnocchi dough into a log about 2-3 cm thick.

It is hard to control the gnocchi dough when rolled in a medium thin cigar. Keep in mind that you need to work through the rolling process fast, fast, fast. Use your pasta spatula cutter to divide it into 2-cm-long pieces. And there's your gnocchi.

Potato Gnocchi

Many famous chefs like to shape their potato gnocchi dumplings using a fork or a sort of gnocchi wooden board, but the traditional way to shape the potato gnocchi in Veneto region, Italy (where the gnocchi was born!) is using a Parmigiano grater (see the pics). Chef Isa loves to make the gnocchi in this way.
The proper texture of a gnocchi is to roll every gnocchi on the back of a hand parmigiano grater sprinkled with flour 00 and indent it a little with your thumb: this way is hard and difficult, but funny.
So pinch each piece into a concave gnocchi shape, pressing it against the back of the grater to make grooves on the opposite sides. The perfect gnocco seems a nice shell.
And the gnocchi will be better, not only for the presentation but for the sauce!

Potato Gnocchi

Potato Gnocchi

Potatoes Gnocchi with the Chef Mama Isa

Potato Gnocchi at Mama Isa's Cooking Classes in Italy near Venice

Place the gnocchi onto a tray or onto a wooden board floured with semolina flour, leaving a space between each piece to prevent them from sticking together.

Potato Gnocchi at Mama Isa's Cooking Classes in Italy near Venice

Bring a small saucepan  of salted water to boil (salted like the sea water).  Place over a high heat, put on the lid, and bring to the boil. "Il momento della verità" (=the moment of truth) arrives when you boil your gnocchi!
Drop the gnocchi into the boiling water - they should float up to the surface in about 1-2 minutes, hold their shape without breaking.

Transfer it to a colander.

Potatoes Gnocchi with the Chef Mama Isa

Potato Gnocchi at Mama Isa's Cooking Classes in Italy near Venice

Potato Gnocchi at Mama Isa's Cooking Classes in Italy near Venice

Be prepared that your gnocchi may not come out "perfetto" (=perfect) the first time. In fact, they probably won't. Keep trying. Homemade Potato Gnocchi take patience, but they're worth it! If the gnocchi fall apart or appear to be fraying at the edges, it can mean one of 2 things: you let gnocchi cook for too long or you didn't combine the potato and flour 00 into true gnocchi dough!!!
Now stir the gnocchi into a warm sauce of your choice.    

Gnocchi di Patate al Ragù - Potato Gnocchi with Bolognese sauce

 

Potato Gnocchi at Mama Isa's Cooking Classes in Italy near Venice

Be prepared that your gnocchi may not come out "perfetto" (=perfect) the first time!!! In fact, they probably won't. Keep trying. Homemade Potato Gnocchi take patience, but they're worth it!