I made gnocchi for the first time this evening! So very impressed with myself, although it was actually pretty straightforward. (Although made infinitely more straightforward if you have a potato ricer).
Just 4 ingredients, a bit of mixing and then there were these beautiful, pillowy, soft gnocchi! So tasty with pesto and green beans. As usual, I forgot to take pics so you’ll have to take my word for it. Feeds 2 with quite a lot of leftovers.
- 700g potatoes (I used red-skinned floury ones)
- 210g strong white flour or pasta flour (plus extra for dusting)
- 1 egg
- 1 tsp salt
- Put the whole potatoes in a saucepan and cover with cold water
- Stick the lid on and turn the heat to high. Bring to the boil, cook for 15-30 mins (depending how big your potatoes are) until soft, and then drain
- Directly onto the counter, tip the flour into a pile, add the salt and sort of swirl toegther with your fingertips. Make a gap in the middle of the pile so it looks a bit like a christmas wreath
- Peel the potatoes (this bit can be slightly burny on your fingertips!) While they’re still hot, use the ricer to rice the whole potatoes roughly into the gap in the middle of the flour. This is not an exact science and that is fine. Don’t worry
- Make a well in the middle of the potato and crack the egg in
- Use a fork to beat the egg, then mix it gradually into the potato and flour, drawing them into the middle and combining the ingredients thoroughly
- Once it comes together, get your hands in and knead briefly to form a soft dough. Don’t give it too much time or energy, or you’ll get tough gnocchis
- Cut the dough ball into 4 roughly even pieces and work on each piece separately just to make life a bit easier
- Dust the counter with flour and gently roll one of the pieces into a long snake-piece, about 2cm in diameter. I used the palms of both hands to make my snakes
- Cut into 2cm pieces with a sharp knife. Either leave as they are or roll over the back of a floury fork with your thumb to make a pretty (sauce-trapping) pattern of ridges
- Drop the the finished gnocchi onto a floured tray and dust with a bit more flour to stop them sticking together
- When you’re ready to eat, bring a large pan of salted water to the boil, keep the heat high and drop your gnocchi in
- As they cook, they will rise to the top and you can just scoop them out with a slotted spoon
Eat immediately with lashings of fresh, homemade pesto or any other sauce you might use on pasta – tomato sauce, melted butter and sage leaves, cheese sauce or any one of a number of others.
Sophie cooks 