The Traditional Gnocchi Recipe

Connoisseurs of good Italian food know that gnocchi is a small ball of dough. In fact, the word in Italian means “lump”. This dumpling is made with potatoes, although it can also be made with flour, pumpkin, cheese or even polenta. Gnocchi is served in the same way as pasta, with sauce or a little butter and sage or Parmesan cheese.

There are multiple ways of cooking gnocchi, so you may visit this link https://olivieri.ca/gnocchi-recipes/ and choose the one you like the most!

How it is prepared

Purists make their potato dumplings by hand. First, they wash and boil the potatoes. After cooking and cooling, the potatoes are peeled and pushed through a richer paddle. It is important not to mash the potatoes, as they will become rubbery and difficult to work with. Once the potatoes are processed, flour and salt are added to make a dough.

The dough is rolled into long cylindrical pieces that are cut into bite-sized morsels. The bites are rolled from a fork, giving them the wavy pattern for which gnocchi are famous. A special gnocchi board can also be used for this. The dumplings should be added to the boiling water immediately after cutting. For best results, they should be cooked fresh as they do not store well.

If you have celiac disease you will have to use another type of pasta, but the authentic recipe of gnocchi has wheat flour, so although less than the common pasta, it has wheat.

How it is cooked

To cook the gnocchi, drop the dumplings gently into rapidly boiling water. When the dumplings float to the top of the water, they are ready. This process should only take a few minutes; more than two or three minutes and the dumplings will begin to break apart in the water.

Gnocchi can be served in many different ways. One way is to sauté some garlic in a little butter and pour it over the gnocchi. Tomato, pesto, and Alfredo sauces also work well with this dish. Gnocchi is also tasty with vegetables such as eggplant, asparagus or artichokes.

The traditional Italian recipe

Ingredients

• 2.2 lb of potatoes.
• 2 egg yolks.
• 5 oz of wheat flour 00.
• Salt.
• Pepper.

Gnocchi preparation

Preparing gnocchi is really simple, although as you are going to be working with dough, this recipe has the technical complications that any recipe involving wheat flour has. But with a little practice and enjoying cooking it should not be a problem.

i. The first thing you will do is peel the potato, cut it into pieces of about 3 cm on each side and cook them for 20 minutes in salted water.

ii. Once cooked, strain them and mash them with a fork or a potato masher but without going too far, you do not want a mashed potato. In fact, it is very nice to find tiny pieces of potato in the gnocco (this is the singular of gnocchi).

iii. Once the mashed potato has cooled a little, add the two egg yolks, the 5 oz of flour, a little salt, and pepper. At this point, you can add some extra ingredients if you want, such as grated cheese or some herbs, for example, but this is an extra.

iv. The result has to be a fairly compact dough. Flour the surface on which you are going to work and then cut the dough into smaller pieces and create rolls of about 1 cm in diameter, not much more because otherwise the gnocchi will be too heavy.

v. Cut it into pieces about 2 cm long and in this way create the gnocchi. To give it the typical shape, crush it with a fork.

vi. Finally, you only have to put salted water in a saucepan, boil it and add the gnocchi you have prepared. They will be ready when they float.

As a final detail, the gnocchi has to be cooked when you finish making the dough, you cannot keep them. The only way to do it is if you freeze them, either before or after cooking them, even with sauce incorporated.

Gnocchi is a great alternative to regular pasta, and although a bit heavier, with this gnocchi recipe they turn out delicious. A great way if you are also trying to reduce the amount of gluten you consume because it does not have as much wheat flour as regular pasta.