Gnocchi
Somehow Mom and I got it into our heads that it would be fun to try our hand at making gnocchi for the first time for Christmas Eve dinner. We were right — it was fun, but boy were these little potato dumplings a lot of work. Not including baking the potatoes, I think it didn’t take us but about an hour to make them, but we were working pretty hard for that hour.
Here’s the basic idea: bake the potatoes; peel and pass through a food mill; mix with egg yolks, flour, and seasoning; roll into logs, cut these, and roll the pieces over the tines of a fork to get the characteristic gnocchi indentations; boil, then dunk in ice water and drain.
At this point, we refrigerated them until we were ready to use. I don’t know for sure how long they will keep; I used some about four days after we made them and they tasted just as good as when they were fresh. We also froze some, but I can’t tell you yet how those turned out.
When we were ready to cook them, we heated the sauce, and then sauteed them in a little olive oil — I think a little bit of crust on the gnocchi gives them a nice texture and keeps them from being too squishy. For Christmas Eve we made a cherry tomato sauce, but I don’t have that recipe. Matt and I also made a gorgonzola sauce with asparagus and prosciutto a couple days later which was also excellent. The recipes for the gnocchi and the sauce were adapted from recipes from Mugnaini, the company my parents bought their pizza oven from, and where they took some cooking classes a couple months ago.
Gnocchi
Adapted from Mugnaini Imports
(6-8 servings)
2 lb. Yukon gold potatoes
2 egg yolks
3 c flour
Salt to taste
Freshly ground pepper to taste
1-2 T chopped herbs (I think we used rosemary and thyme)
Wrap potatoes in foil and bake at 425 F until tender, about 1 hour. Cool until you can stand to handle them. Peel, and pass through a food mill. Place milled potatoes on a work surface and add all other ingredients. You want a fair amount of salt since potatoes tend to kind of absorb it. Taste the dough to see if the seasoning seems about right.
Bring to a boil a large pot of water. Roll batches of dough into a long log about 1 inch thick. Cut the roll into small pieces and roll over fork tines to make indentations. Unfortunately, I don’t seem to have gotten a picture of this, but mom found that the easiest way to do this was to place the gnocchi on the back of one fork and roll it down the tines with the back of another fork.
Add the gnocchi to water and keep the water so it’s just barely boiling. Wait until the gnocchi rise to the top, and leave in the water about 1-2 minutes more. Remove with a slotted spoon to a large bowl of ice water to cool. Drain. These can now be stored in containers in the fridge at least for a couple days. I think freezing will probably be ok too, though I haven’t yet eaten the ones we froze.
Gorgonzola Sauce
Adapted from Mugnaini Imports
(6 servings)
3-4 slices of prosciutto (actually think pancetta might have been better)
2 cloves garlic, minced
butter or olive oil
1 recipe gnocchi
about 1/2 lb of asparagus, broken into 2″ pieces
1/4 c Gorgonzola cheese
2 c heavy cream
1/3 c pine nuts, toasted
1/3 c Parmigiano Reggiano
Dice the prosciutto or pancetta. Saute the meat and garlic over medium high heat until the garlic begins to brown, adding a little butter if not enough fat is rendered from the meat. Remove from the pan. Add gnocchi to the pan and saute until just slightly golden, adding more butter or some olive oil if needed. Remove from the pan and add to the garlic/prosciutto. Add the cream to the pan and deglaze a bit. Add gorgonzola and asparagus. Cook over medium high until somewhat thick. Add parmigiano. Let thicken a bit more and add gnocchi mixture and pine nuts. Stir until heated through. Serve immediately, with more parmigiano on the side if desired.
January 10th, 2008 at 3:14 pm
This looks pretty good! I think ill try to make it here in the next few days!
January 10th, 2008 at 6:32 pm
Bob, if you try them, let me know how they turn out! How are things in NC?