Hand Made Gnocchi

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Aromataste

Assistant Cook
Joined
Apr 21, 2014
Messages
12
Location
Birmingham
Hello folks, my name is Emilio and I'm new to this community.
As my 1st thread I would love to share with you my gnocchi recipe, as my mother taught me many years ago....
All you need is:
800g/1 kg potatoes
1 egg
salt
About 350 gr flour
1 hour of time

The first thing to do is to prepare the potatoes: wash them and, without peeling them, put them in a pot with salted water and let them boil (for making potato gnocchi I recommend you use the floury potatoes red). When they became soft enough, still warm, peel them, mash them and put them on a well-floured worktop.
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Add a pinch of salt, flour and knead until you obtain a firm but soft at the same time dough.
At this point add an egg and continue to knead until the dough is compact and without lumps.
Note that the amount of flour needed is very sensitive to the potatoes variety used, so if the mixture is still too sticky and wet add some other flour.
Now Divide the dough into balls the size of a fist, then start rolling them on the table to obtain the strands with a thickness of 2-3 centimetres.
Begin to cut your gnocchi and put them down on a surface or a floured tray.

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To give gnocchi their typical shape, if you don't have a threaded board as the one shown in the picture, you can use a fork. Just press each gnocco on its back and let it rolling on it.

Let stand your gnocchi for 15 minutes, then cook them in a pot with enough salted boiling water and drain when they will rise to the surface.
Prepare the seasoning that you like and dress your gnocchi.

Enjoy your gnocchi!:chef::chef::chef::chef:
 

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Well thought out.;) Try baking the potatoes, peeling them while they are still very warm and then putting them through a ricer. I think you will find your end product will be much lighter.
 
Mamma does this! But she bakes the potatoes, as Craig suggested.

I'm not brave enough to try it alone yet.

With love,
~Cat
 
I'm very glad you like my recipe, if anyone try to follow it, please let me know the result!! Buon appetito!!
 
What is the "thread board" and what does it do to gnocchi?


Charlie, the thread board is a wood paddle with deep grooves cut into it. You roll each piece of pasta over the grooves with your thumb. That puts grooves onto the pasta and an indentation from your thumb which hold the sauce on the individual gnocchi.
 
Mash or rice the potato's?

Your description says to mash, yet the diagrams show a ricer being used.
I would think this would make a difference?
That a ricer is the best way to do it?
 
Interesting, thank you. How come the commercially sold ones do not have them? Also I've seen the episode of Fabio Viviani's show and he did not do that. Is there reason he did not do that? Is it a traditional thing to make those groves in gnocchi?
Ukrainians make something similar and serve with sour cream sauce or put it into a soup, no grooves there either.
Just wondering?
 
Any commercially/storebought gnocchi I have purchased has had the grooves. Both frozen and fresh. Some are more pronounced than others.
 
Mash or rice the potato's?

Your description says to mash, yet the diagrams show a ricer being used.
I would think this would make a difference?
That a ricer is the best way to do it?

Where did you see a ricer? What I saw was a large ladle with holes placing the finished product in the water. This instrument will also be used to remove them. There is no ricer in the pictorial. :angel:
 
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I think each nationality has some type of potato dumplings, and gnocchi just happens to be the Italian version. Gnocchi is the only one I have seen in retail grocery stores. The others are mostly home-made in the various ethnic cuisines. My Slovak MIL used to cook them and serve them with saurkraut mixed in. There was probably a Slovak version that her mother used to make but she used the store-bought gnocchi rather than make them herself. I never even heard of gnocchi until eating them at her house. The teenagers all called them "nookies." They thought us old people didn't know what that was. LOL
 
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