So it's been a while since I have posted anything! To my loyal fans (all 3 of you), sorry for the hiatus. For a variety of reasons I haven't been spending nearly enough time in the kitchen (read husbands knee surgery and deciding to move to China). Tonight things felt back to normal. I treated myself and Tom to a home cooked gnocchi dinner. My Aunt Rita makes a killer gnocchi, they are light as air and taste like little clouds of pasta. Mmm mmm mmm!
While the summer hasn't left us yet I opted to pair the gnocchi with pesto rather than a heavy tomato sauce.
Her is my Aunt Rita's recipe for gnocchi.
Gnocchi
Serves 4 - 8 (depends on how hungry you are)
- 4 Idaho Potatoes (for some odd reason, when the potatoes are old - they taste better in this recipe... don't question it, little old Italian ladies said so!)
- 4ish Cups Flour (you might be a little more or less depending on how much moisture is in the potatoes and how humid it is that day)
- 2 Eggs
- 1 Tsp. Salt
Peel and cut up the potatoes. Cook the potatoes in boiling water, like you were making mashed potatoes. Once the potatoes are fork tender, drain and let cool. Pass the potatoes through a ricer into a large bowl. The ricer is actually pretty important to the recipe. You need to get the potatoes to a consistency that is completely smooth and soft without whipping or mashing and developing the gluten.
Beat the 2 eggs in a small bowl and add salt. Make a well in the middle of the potatoes and add eggs. Combine the egg and potatoes then add the flour in stages. Working the flour into the potatoe mixture you want the texture of the dough to be soft and springy, but come together into a ball. At this point you can drop a bit of the dough into boiling water until it floats, use this as a test to see if the gnocchi are the right consistency.
Working in batches, roll out long "snakes" of the gnocchi dough, approx 1" in diameter. With a knife cut the "snake" into small pieces. At this point you can freeze the gnocchi and save for another day. Or... you can cook them in boiling water. Once the gnocchis float they are done! This happens quickly, about 2-3 mins.
Enjoy!!!
