# Gnocchi



## dragnlaw

I had gnocci left over and was looking for some recipes to use it up differently. 

Several recipes use them in salads which I thought sounded great.  They just fry them in various flavoured butters and add them in.  All the recipes claimed how crispy on the outside and fluffy on the inside....   Well, I claim rubbish!  They were like chewing large wine gums!

But throw them in a stew (or soup) towards the end of cooking and they are delish! Like tiny dumplings.

I also par-boiled them along with some Brussel Sprouts then your classic butter fry-up...  very yummy.

I might try them for salad again with par-boiling and strive to hit the delicate balance of not over doing them and being fluffy to fry.


----------



## CraigC

Are they homemade and are they potato? They are really good if you pan saute them in brown butter infused with sage. A little fresh grated parmigiano reggiano on top! Who am I kidding, lots of PR on top!

Imagine a potato gnocchi the size of a baseball that gets stuffed! A German version with an herbed bread cube stuffing, kartoffelkloesse or a Cuban/Latino version stuffed with picadillo, papa rellena.


----------



## dragnlaw

No, not homemade, store bought. Imported from Italy, not frozen or dried but shrink wrapped with a shelf life probably longer than I will be around.
I did try to make some Gnocchi once (evidently I misspelled before).  They were so bad I could not eat them and worse....  even the chickens would not touch them - how embarrassing  

Yes they are made from potatoes.  I thought that was what made them gnocchi? What else can gnocchi be made from?

Gads, seems I take pictures of all my foods but did not this time...  oh well.
They would almost but not quite double in size when you cooked them. Were about 1" by 1/2"?
I have never heard of kartoffelkloesse - more info please...


----------



## medtran49

The original Italian gnocchi was more than likely one made out of a dough made with semolina flour.  The dough is rolled or patted out and cut into rounds, traditionally shingled in a baking dish, drizzled with butter, topped with parm and baked.   Remember that potatoes are a New World food and didn't come to Italy until LONG after milled grains did. There are also Parisian gnocchi that are made from pate a choux dough.

If your gnocchi doubled in size, they cooked too long and absorbed too much water, thus, gummy.  They should be taken out of the water when they float.

Gnocchi are really not that difficult to make.  Just a little practice and a good explanation.  The ingredients are cheap, a potato and some flour, and a bit of your time.  I posted a tutorial on here a while back.  Can't post links when i'm on my tablet but it shouldn't be hard to find with a quick search.


----------



## dragnlaw

Very interesting...  I'll have to try and look up their history, Thanks!

But I guess I owe a small explanation.  When the gnocchi doubled in size it was when I threw them into the slow cooker that had a thick sauce on the lamb.  Obviously from the doubling in size they were in there longer than they should have been. Maybe a half hour?  But....   they were DELISH!   They were very fluffy inside like perfect little dumplings. Certainly not gummy.

On the other hand, when I tried frying them without, (I don't know what you would call it...)  parboiling them?  they were rubbery, not gummy.  Hence my description of wine gums.  

So lesson learned??  Always parboil or traditional boil first, and the exception to the rule ...  when adding to a soup/stew.  

And thanks medtran, although I have to try everything at least once, I know when to quit.  I have Italian friends who swear it is so easy to make but I will just stick with the store bought. 

I have friends who cannot for the life of them make polenta BUT I CAN! 
Yaaaa!!!!


----------



## Addie

Gnocchi can be tricky to make. It just takes practice. Like you I can make the creamiest mashed potatoes. Whereas my girlfriend even had problems with instant potatoes. I kept telling her the secret was plenty of seasoning along with a good helping of butter and milk or cream. And although I just happen to like them, for those folks who do not want lumps, then you should definitely invest in a ricer. My favorite though is a baked potato.


----------



## CraigC

dragnlaw said:


> I have never heard of kartoffelkloesse - more info please...



Kartoffelkloesse is the general word used for potato dumplings. The stuffed ones that I mentioned were my grandmother's recipe. They were served with sauerbraten (sour beef), but extras were always made. The extras were sliced (1/2" thick) and pan fried in butter or bacon fat as part of breakfast the next morning. The stuffing was the same as her dressing she made for the USA Thanksgiving, which was a new to her holiday when she first arrived here. Although sauerbraten is one of my favorite dishes, I usually have it for my birthday dinner, I think we liked the dumplings best for breakfast.


----------



## medtran49

Addie said:


> Gnocchi can be tricky to make. It just takes practice. Like you I can make the creamiest mashed potatoes. Whereas my girlfriend even had problems with instant potatoes. I kept telling her the secret was plenty of seasoning along with a good helping of butter and milk or cream. And although I just happen to like them, for those folks who do not want lumps, then you should definitely invest in a ricer. My favorite though is a baked potato.


 
Also not overbeating if you are using a mixer to mash.  They can go from creamy to gummy really fast in a mixer.  

If you want absolutely no lumps and want to go to the trouble, you can always press the finished mashed potatoes through a fine sieve.  I think there's an actual piece of kitchen equipment for high-end restaurant kitchens to do this with but for the life of me can't think of the name.  It's framed wire or plastic mesh and a dough scraper type thingy.  Or it could have just been something that particular kitchen used to put out perfectly smooth mashies.


----------



## dragnlaw

CraigC said:


> Kartoffelkloesse is the general word used for potato dumplings.



Aha!..  thought I recognized the word but couldn't remember what it was.  I had them in Germany at a friends house and I distinctly remember they were delish.  That was also my first introduction to sauerkraut.  Loved it. But that was about 60 years ago!  Thank You!


----------



## dragnlaw

medtran49 said:


> They can go from creamy to gummy really fast in a mixer.
> 
> I think there's an actual piece of kitchen equipment for high-end restaurant kitchens to do this with but for the life of me can't think of the name.  It's framed wire or plastic mesh and a dough scraper type thingy.



I thought that by heating your milk/cream you were less likely to get gum/paste with a mixer - or even by hand which happened to me once.

I have seen that equipment you are talking about and I don't know the name either!

I totally agree with Addie - get a ricer, no lumps, easier to incorporate the rest of the ingredients.  Just make sure you cook the patates long enough or you will need to invite Hercules to dinner.


----------



## GotGarlic

Potatoes get gummy when they're over-beaten. It causes the cells to break down and release more starch.


----------



## di reston

Gnocchi are, in fact, another form of pasta that was, in ancient times, even preceding the development of other shapes of pastas that followed later on. They didn't have potatoes in them until the 17th century, when potatoes were introduced into Europe. The flourless kind are still made in Italy, but they tend to be made in the south and in Sardinia and Sicily rather than further north. The introduction of potatoes to the recipe was further north than Rome, where they have their own style of gnocchi (gnocchi di semola) which are usually formed into circles, arranged in neat rows in a baking dish and baked in the oven with a good dusting of Roman pecorino cheese.

Potato gnocchi are made everywhere from Central to Northern Italy, and are almost certainly cousins of dumplings that are made in many of the more northerly European countries. Italian gnocchi are small. Some recipes call for eggs, others don't. But what seems to be a general characteristic of the tradition of eating gnocchi is that they're very often eaten on a Thursday, looking ahead to the traditional lean meals of Friday in preparation for the Saturday night feast of pasta with ragù, where the ragù in many areas is made with chunks of meat as well as tomatoes, providing pasta and tomato sauce as a first course after the antipasto, and followed by the meat as the main course, as a precurser to the lavish meal of Sunday lunch celebrating the Catholic faith and beliefs.

In India, there is a gnocchi dish where the gnocchi are fried and then sugared.

Recipe for gnocchi alla Piemontese: 600g very floury potatoes, mashed without anything and 150g '00' flour (NOT strong flour, cake flour) salt. The potatoes should be mashed by hand and kept as dry as possible while you work the dough. Then make a sausage of about 3/4 in thick, and cut it into 3/4 in lengths. Make an indentation with your thumb. Flour them lightly and cook when necessary. They freeze well.

di reston


Enough is never as good as a feast     Oscar Wilde


----------



## di reston

Oops! should have said the gnocchi without POTATOES are made more in the south and on the islands of Italy!

di reston

Enough is never as good as a feast    Oscar Wilde


----------

