Gnocchi di Patate

What a terrific little thing is fresh gnocchi!
Somewhere in my travels I heard that "Wednesday is Gnocchi Day". I think they are fantastic any day of any week. Orvieto or Lake Como maybe.
And they freeze well too so you can make a batch for now and enough for later.


Ingredients

• 4 medium sized Potatoes - either Kennebeck or Pontiacs work fine
• Plain flour - 200grams to start, but you'll definitely need more
• pinch of salt
• 1 egg

For the potatoes a ricer is good or you can coarsely mash them, but don't make a paste.
You'll need something to make the ridges on the outside of the gnocchi - one of those butter molds, or gnocchi paddle or even the back of a long-prong fork is fine.
-
Method
Boil the potatoes in their skins for 15-20 minutes, then while they are still hot [but cool enough to handle] peel them. Pass them through a ricer, or coarsely mash them.

Make a well in the initial batch of flour, and break the egg into it, add the pinch of salt.
Combine the ingredients - use your hands or a spoon, but don't overwork the dough.
It needs to be combined and not too wet to the feel - keep adding flour until you have a nice combined ball of dough.
Let it rest for 10 mins.

Then, break the dough into more manageable pieces and roll a piece of he dough into a 1.5cm diameter sausage. cut the sausage into 1cm chunks. With more flour on your work surface, rub the pieces between your floured hands into little balls about 1.5cm - 2cm in diameter.

You'll get a feel here of how dry the dough is - you dont want it to stick to your hands, or the moulding device [in the next step]. Again dont overwork it - add the flour to your hands while rolling.

Once you have a little collection of dough balls, the fun starts!
Take a ball, and with your thumb, run the ball along the back of the fork to form the ridges. Set that piece aside, on a floured piece of kitchen paper or tea towel.

If they're sticking to your thumb or the ridging tool, they are too wet - use more flour!
Repeat until you use up the set of dough balls.
Then repeat the process of making the dough balls and rolling them out.

Cooking
Have your sauce ready - I like simple Tomato and Basil with garlic. But you could try Pesto [basil, pinenuts], Alfredo [cream, parmesan, parsley] or Bolognese [beef, tomato]. I think Bolognese is too heavy. Get creative!
So
In plenty of boiling salted water add a handful of gnocchi or so. Maybe just enough for two people at a time. Dont overcrowd the water. They cook very quickly and you dont want them to overcook - they can go tough or break up! They are ready when they rise to the surface of the water - scoop them out with a slotted spoon. Repeat for more batches.

Place into individual plates with your sauce, herbs and cheese. Beautiful!



EAT!!

Storage
Gnocchi can be stored between sheets of floured kitchen paper. Don't crowd them or they'll squash together.

Photos by TokMonsta

-

More gnocchi from 2014 below

Tomato Pasta Sauce base

Buy fresh roma tomatoes at the end of the season by the box or canned peeled italian tomatoes by the case when they're cheap [fresh less than $1 a kilo, cans down to 40c a can]

Ingredients
12 cans peeled tomatoes or equivalent
8 cloves Garlic
1 tbsp Salt
Pepper
1 tbsp Sugar
Olive oil
Herbs

Peel fresh tomatoes
With a sharp knife cut an 'X' in the base of the tomato
Steep the tomatoes a few at a time in boiling water for two minutes, then remove to iced water.
After they have cooled, peel the skin off* - it should come away easily.

Preparation
Have the cans opened so you can assemble quickly, or fresh tomatoes should be chopped roughly.
In a large saucepan, heat 2 tbsp olive oil and fry the garlic, but don't let it brown.
Add the tomatoes. For canned tomatoes, squeeze the individual tomatoes through your fingers - saves chopping, produces a nice result.
Adjust to taste and add herbs.
When all the tomatoes are in the pot bring to the boil but immediately turn down the heat to slow simmer. Simmer for 2 hours.
The sauce should reduce slightly maybe to 75% of the original volume. Taste it for intensity and consistency.

Bottling
When the sauce is ready, it can be bottled into sterilised glass jars.
Have the bottles clean and ready, with metal caps. Don't use plastic-topped jars, the metal ones with the pop-up buttons are best and can be re-used over and over.
Have the sauce on slow simmer.

Boil enough water [fast simmer] to boil a couple of bottles and their caps at the same time.

Everything you use at this point should be clean and preferably boiled if it comes into conatct with the sauce - bottles, caps, tongs, funnel. Wear gloves and an apron. Use tongs and a wide mouth funnel.

Working quickly, take one bottle out of the boiling water and fill it with simmering tomato sauce.
Leave a small 'head-space' at the top of the bottle. Retrieve the appropriate cap from the boiling water and immediately seal the bottle. Set aside to cool [the bottles are red-hot!]. You'll know they're sealed when the tops 'pop' that's the sound the button top makes as it compresses into the top of the bottle.

Any bottles which don't seal correctly, button-in, should be used immediately or refrigerated for up to two days. Bottles which do seal correctly seem to last for a long time.

Science nut note - it's the same process as the 'egg in a milk bottle' trick - the cooling sauce within the bottle lowers the pressure within the bottle and the surrounding atmospheric pressure pushes the top onto the bottle, very securely.

Wikipedia page - Home Canning
USDA - National Center for Home Food Preservation

*compost the skins

Variations
Now that you have the basic sauce the uses of it are diverse.
Use it straight for a Napolitana sauce
Add chilli for Arrabbiata sauce.
Add capers and olives for Puttanesca sauce
Add to browned beef mince for Bolognese sauce
Add to Bœuf Bourguignon
Use on a pizza base for a quick pizza