This is one of our most popular preparations, and that doesn’t surprise me because as you probably already know, gnocchi is a quite unique and delectable preparation. We will follow the traditional way of creating this pasta substitute, and you might be surprised to hear that it has no eggs whatsoever. Learn with us how to prepare stunning and delicious gnocchi using only two simple ingredients.
Instructions
- Bring a pot of water to the boil, tip in the potatoes and cook them for 40 minutes. To test if the potatoes are cooked, pierce them with a toothpick. You know they are ready if the pick easily passes through the centre of the potatoes.
- Once the potatoes are cooked, drain them and peel them whilst they are still hot.
- Dice the potatoes and press them through a potato ricer over a working surface. If you don’t have a potato ricer, thoroughly mash them with a fork.
- Sift the flour onto the mashed potatoes.
- Take a dough scraper and start cutting through the flour to mix the ingredients.
- Mix the ingredients by hand until a rough dough is obtained. At the end of this process, the dough should be firm to the eye, soft to the touch and a bit sticky. If it is too sticky, a little more flour can be added.
- Roll the dough into a cylindrical shape and cover it with a kitchen towel. Leave the mixture to rest for 10 minutes before moving on.
- Once the time has elapsed, remove the towel from the dough, dust some flour onto the working surface, cut a part of the dough and roll it into a sausage shape.
- Cut the shape into pieces of the desired dimension. Each of these pieces will become a gnocco.
- To make the gnocchi with the board, gently press and roll the piece of dough onto the wood to achieve the classic shape. To proceed with the other method, dust a fork with some flour and gently press and roll each gnocco against the fork’s prongs.
- To cook the gnocchi, simply plunge them into boiling water and keep them in until they rise to the surface.
Substitutions and Tips
- Potatoes can be waxy or floury and this classification depends upon their dry matter content. A high dry matter content makes a potato floury and a low dry matter content makes a potato waxy. For this reason floury potatoes are the best option for gnocchi, because due their dryer texture, less flour will be needed to achieve the right consistency.
- The perfect potato varieties for gnocchi are Maris Piper, King Edward and Russet.
- A perfectly made gnocco will have traditional furrows in which the sauce clings. The gnocco will also have a hollow side in which the sauce remains trapped.
- Gnocchi can be made into any shape. However, the traditional one described in this recipe, will hold the most sauce.
- Gnocchi do not keep well in the fridge for more than one day and cannot be frozen unless you follow some specific rules.
- The best way to preserve gnocchi is to freeze them. To do this, plunge them into boiling water for one minute and drain them. Then, line a baking sheet with some greaseproof paper, space the gnocchi evenly onto its surface and place the sheet into the freezer. After a few hours the gnocchi will be frozen and ready to be placed in a freezer bag and stored. To cook frozen gnocchi, simply plunge them into boiling water. They are ready when they rise to the surface.
Nutritional Info
Serving Size: 250g Calories: 342kcal Carbohydrate: 74.2g Starch: 25g Sugar: 2.4g Fiber: 6.2g Fat: 0.8g Saturated Fat: 0.2g Unsaturated Fat: 0.6g Protein: 9.2g Sodium: 31mg Water: 163g
