Gnocchi

I have been working up the courage for a while to try my hand at making my own gnocchi.. It is one of my favorite things to order when I'm out and is always better when fresh!
I did quite a lot of research and finding out all the horror stories and all the potential ways to make a complete mess of it. One lady had dropped a few of her potato dumplings into a pot of boiling water and instead of them rising to the surface they completely disintegrated! All that work for nothing!

I took advice from a few recipes and although a few types of potato are better (russet or deiree) due to their more floury texture the potatoes from my local supermarket were just "loose potatoes" so I just crossed my fingers and hoped for the best!!

I started by cutting the potatoes in half a placing them in a pot of cold water then letting the come to a boil. The potatoes took about 45 minutes to cook.






Me and the taters.. Wasting time while they cooked

I then took them out and peeled off the skin with a knife. It's much easier to do this if the potatoes are still warm so work quickly.






The next step is to mash them up. Some people use a potato ricer, others use a potato masher and mash them in the pot. I used a fork and mashed them up that way.



I drizzled on a beaten egg and about 3/4 cup of plain flour.



Eggs


Which made it into this. Then I did a bit of haphazard kneading which made the consistency much smoother. Add flour until the dough stops being sticky.
Once I thought it was okay I cut it up into about nine pieces and then rolled them into snakes. I don't have any pictures of this stage as my hands (and the kitchen) were covered in potato and flour.

I then chopped them up into about 1.5cm pieces and layer them on a floured tray.



The thing I found hardest was the stickiness of the dough and I had to add at least another 1/4 cup of flour.

Then I dropped a few in some boiling water (I just reused the potato water) as the anticipation to see what they would taste like was too great to wait til dinner time.




Leave them float on the top for about ten seconds before you get them out. I dropped them straight into a swirl of basil pesto from a jar.



They were like clouds! Like heaven!! I was shocked that I had made such a good batch on my first try!

Then for dinner I cooked up some sliced mushrooms with chili bacon and garlic. Then added some cream. Then once some water had boiled I added about twenty pieces of gnocchi and once they rose to the surface I ploped them into the sauce.


Delicious!!!!!! I had quite a lot left over so I froze it in two twenty piece lots. They apparently freeze well and thaw quickly.