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.

Matt made this for me for my (a few days delayed) birthday dinner. But he says “I don’t write,” so I’m describing the recipe for him. (His role on this blog is to get all the technical stuff working, and I get to do the fun part of writing up posts.) This was inspired but something Matt always orders at Madison and Fifth, a new-ish Italian restaurant in downtown Palo Alto. Their version uses orecchiette, but Matt decided he likes ravioli better. I made dessert — pomegranate-studded persimmon creme brulee; it was tasty but not the right consistency, so it needs a little work before I post a recipe.

Ingredients:

Olive oil
1 pkg. of cherry tomatoes
1 pkg. of artichoke cheese ravioli
2 cloves of garlic, minced
1 bunch of broccolini, roughly chopped
1 lb. Italian sausage, chopped
1/4 c pine nuts (toasting these would be nice, though we didn’t)
1/4 c parmesan cheese, grated

1. Place tomatoes in a small pan and drizzle with olive oil. Roast at 375 F for about 20 minutes, or until the tops are slightly brown and they burst a bit.
2. Cook ravioli according to package instructions. Toss with a little bit of olive oil to keep them from sticking together and set aside.
3. Brown the sausage in a large skillet over medium-high heat until done. Remove from pan and set aside. Remove the grease from the pan.
4. Saute some garlic in the skillet, adding a little olive oil if necessary. Add the broccolini and cook until it wilts a bit.
5. Add the sausage and ravioli to the pan, and cook until heated through. Add the pine nuts and parmesan cheese, toss to combine.
6. Garnish with extra parmesan cheese.