In days gone by, Italian housewives must have been very frugal, as some wonderful Italian recipes used only simple ingredients that are a delight to cook and eat. Each time I make one of these recipes, I think of a woman in her simple kitchen a hundred years ago with an almost bare cupboard, wondering what she might prepare to provide a filling and satisfying meal for her family.
Potato gnocchi (pronounced nyow-kee) is one of those delicious and frugal meals. Garlic bread soup is another, and that recipe can be found on my Garlic Blog.
Store bought gnocchi is usually pretty heavy, but homemade is light and fluffy and takes to a variety of sauces. My favorite is a light tomato sauce. There the little crevices of the gnocchi to collect the sauce, so with each bite, you get fully gnocchi bathed in the rich sauce.
Homemade Gnocchi
Ingredients
- 2 lbs of potatoes russet or Yukon gold
- 1/2 cup plus 1 Tbsp. of all-purpose flour plus some for dusting.
- 2 tsp. salt
- Semolina flour for dusting
Instructions
- Either bake or boil the potatoes until easily pierced. After cooking, cool potatoes so they can be easily handled. Then peel the potatoes. If boiled potatoes seem very wet, you can squeeze water out of them by placing them in a large napkin or a non-terry cloth clean dish towel and twisting. After peeling, dice the potatoes into a bowl.
- Add the all-purpose flour and salt and stir until they become a dough that comes together. Transfer to a work surface and knead until smooth and soft. Cover and let it rest for 30 minutes.
- Line a baking sheet with parchment paper and dust with semolina flour.
- Cut off a piece of dough about 1 to 1 1/4 inches wide. Leave the rest of the dough covered in plastic wrap. Roll the piece of dough on a lightly floured surface into a log about 1/2 inch in diameter. Cut the log into 1/2 to 1-inch pieces and push one side of each piece gently against the tines of a fork to leave little indentations in the dough (which will collect the sauce).
- Place on the baking sheet. Don't let the pieces touch or they might stick together. Continue rolling logs and cutting them until all the dough has been used. You can store the prepared dough in the refrigerator covered with plastic wrap for two days, or freeze for 1 month. It is not necessary to defrost before cooking.
- In a large pot of simmering salted water, add the gnocchi and simmer till they float to the surface, between 1 to 3 minutes. You will probably have to cook in batches. Remove with a slotted spoon and transfer to individual plates or bowls. Serve with a light tomato sauce or your favorite sauce and a nice tossed salad. Yum!
