Gnocchi - Basic Recipe

Gnocchi – Basic Recipe

Published on December 4, 2013 | In | By
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This is the basic Gnocchi as the title suggests. A little later I will suggest some ways to make some variations. Generally, most people think of Gnocchi as Potato Pasta basically that is originally from Italy, and they just buy it from a store. But first… A little history of the Gnocchi…It seems that no one really knows the true history. Generally it is believed that it was introduced by the Roman Legions and in the past 2,000 years each country has developed its own small dumpling that originated with that Gnocchi that the Romans made. It is believed that originally the Romans made it out of semolina flour that is used in today’s Pasta.

Using potato is relatively recent most likely in the 1600’s. Since Gnocchi is considered a peasant food, I think the recipe that I will write is something like what was originally done in the 1600’s with simple ingredients. Butter, eggs, and other additions to Gnocchi is great but it was rare that peasants could afford such luxuries.

I think this is a good basic recipe that you can learn how to make Gnocchi and can then do fancier Gnocchi easier. By fancier I mean add eggs, cheeses, but you can do a lot with this simple recipe too. You can make a variety of sauces that can have cheese, veggies, cream… and the list goes on.

Some recipes boil the potatoes but I like roasting them for a couple of reasons. One reason is roasting seems to add some more flavor. Second, but perhaps important to me is that you can squeeze the potato out of the skin instead of peeling them. I will explain that in the recipe.

Ok…are you ready to make some Gnocchi? I sure am, lets do it!

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Ingredients

  • 2 lbs potato (baker type like russet
  • 1 cup flour (about 1/2 cup per pound
  • water to cook them in

Instructions

  1. Preheat oven to 400F
  2. Prick the Potatoes all over as there is a risk of them exploding in the oven, and that is neither pretty or a fun thing when it happens. 2 - Prick the Potatoes all over as there is a risk of them exploding in the oven, and that is neither pretty or a fun thing when it happens. 2 - Prick the Potatoes all over as there is a risk of them exploding in the oven, and that is neither pretty or a fun thing when it happens.
  3. Place Potatoes on baking sheet and bake about 45 minutes to an hour, or until tender. Remove from oven and let cool.
  4. Peel potatoes - or they this to peel potatoes - Cut each in half, I like to cut them lengthwise, and squeeze them out of the skins. Another alternative to peeling is to spoon out the potato from the skin. To me peeling cooked potatoes is a pain, come to think of it any peeling is a pain. That is why I only peel if I have to for something like Gnocchi as you can't rice the potato skins or I would leave the skins on.
  5. Use a potato ricer and rice the Potatoes into a bowl. NOTE: So you don't have a ricer, oh what can you do... Bet you have a box grater or a food processor don't you - use one of them then. But, a ricer will do the best job. Don't believe me? Well then let me tell you why... Ricers squeeze the potato through fine holes and they don't cut like a box grater or a food processor does. And you are saying "so, what difference does that make", well let me tell you... if you look at a potato it has lots of water that is contained in it and if you shred the potato you will be breaking those little containers and you won't get the texture that you will with a ricer. Now that you understand that lets move along.
  6. Add the flour in the bowl where the cooked potato is a little at a time until incorporated. No for this you use the best tool you have, your hands of course. The mixture should not stick to your hands when the flour in all incorporated.
  7. Dump the mixture onto a lightly floured surface and knead as you would bread. Now this is where the extra 1/4 cup of flour comes into play. If you need a bit more flour because the dough seems to sticky, work in another tablespoon of flour into the mixture.
  8. Lets test your mixture and see if it is ready or not... Take a chunk of the dough and roll it into a rope about a half of an inch thick. If it doesn't hold together you need more flour so put your rope back into the mixture and mix in a little flour. Most times the most flour that you need to add is that extra 1/4 cup I have in the recipe. NOTE: once you make this a couple times you will know how thick you want your rope.
  9. Now take a chunk of dough and roll it out into 1/2 inch thick rope and cut into individual Gnocchi's, maybe 1/2 in pieces.
  10. Use a fork, unless you have a Gnocchi board, and make an impression on each piece of Gnocchi.
  11. Place the Gnocchi on a cooling rack so that it can air dry for at least an hour. If your going to freeze the extra, let it dry for about 4 hours. When freezing lay them out into a single layer until frozen and then put in a freeze bag.
  12. To cook the Gnocchi, place them in at least a 4 quart pot of salted boiling water for a few minutes. The Gnocchi will float and then about a minute after they float they are done. Then you can scoop them out with a slotted spoon.
  13. At this point you have cooked Gnocchi and you can either dress them with some butter and maybe some grated Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese. If you have done some sauce by all means use it.
    Variations: Mix into the dough some of the following; herbs, like basil and oregano cheese, garlic tomato
  • Servings : 6
  • Ready in : 45 Minutes
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