gnocchi with a grater
Do you ever feel like a kitchen incompetent? That despite what seems like The Entire Rest of the World being able to cook something flawlessly, even going so far as to boast, “This is so EASY to make!” each and every time you try it, you fail? Believe me, it’s not just you.
Before this past weekend, nothing made me feel more unskilled and less deserving of your readership than gnocchi, which was a damned shame because it’s probably my favorite pasta in the entire world. After reading countless accounts by others about what a “cinch” gnocchi is to make and how you will “never buy it frozen again,” I tried to make it about a year ago and it was a complete and total disaster. I am not mincing words.
I’ll own up to this from the outset: it’s my fault. I don’t own a potato ricer or a food mill, but chose to make gnocchi even though I knew having one was a requirement. Potatoes, no matter solid they may seem, are about 85 percent water. What you dice into hash browns or thinly slice into a gratin dish are actually tightly clustered, thinly walled microscopic water capsules. This is why you “mash” potatoes with something clumsy rather than puree them with an immersion blender. And this is why when you make gnocchi, you need to get your potatoes into a fine mush without touching them with a water-releasing blade.
You hear all that? I *get* potatoes; they make sense to me. And with all of that arrogance, I decided that although I didn’t have a food mill–I mean, really, lord knows I don’t have any issue buying food-related gadgets, but I first need to be convinced that I’d use it more than once each year–I would simply press the potatoes through a small-meshed strainer, bringing them to the proper consistency. [Man, if there’s any sign that a kitchen disaster is imminent it’s got to be when you think you’ve out-smarted a recipe that The Entire Rest of the World has pretty much agreed on, and also, you’re making the recipe for the very first time.] I ended up with mush, and no matter how much flour I added–I quit when I was nearly two cups beyond the recipe’s suggestion–I could not work that potato batter into a moldable dough.
So, if I know what went wrong and why, why didn’t I get a potato ricer and try it again? Well, I have a reason, and his name is the Amateur Gourmet. Really! Just a few days after my disaster, Adam mentioned that he’d gone out and bought a ricer for the express purpose of making gnocchi but was still disappointed in the results! Surely, I rationalized, there was no reason for me to try again and only set myself up for further failure.
But last week, I saw a technique on About.com that was so cunningly ingenious, I was unable to resist trying again. Get this: you grate the potatoes. No food mill or ricer purchase required! (Which is great because you don’t have room for one anyway!) After grating the baked and peeled potatoes, you knead in some flour, salt and an egg, and your dough is complete! And people, these are some killer gnocchi, with a lightness that I’ve only had before at top-notch Italian restaurants. The secret is to use as little flour as you need, and with this method, you’ll need a lot less. I haven’t quite mastered the little shapes you make with a fork, but rest assured that this has no effect on the final dish.
For Sunday night’s Soprano premiere, I mixed freshly-boiled gnocchi with homemade pesto, which was crazy delicious but with a fairly low originality quotient. But on Monday, oh Monday, I browned them in a frying pan and tossed them with blanched haricot vert, quartered grape tomatoes, fresh cranberry beans, olive oil and parmesan for, seriously, the best pasta salad I’ve ever eaten. This dish was entirely inspired by Heidi at 101 Cookbooks, who opts for chanterelle mushrooms instead of green beans. I vote for mixing in any ingredients that strike your fancy. For us, the fresh cranberry beans and haricot vert in our store were too pretty to pass up, but I can imagine equally-stellar mixtures of white beans, chopped radicchio and bits of broccoli; black olives, sundried tomatoes and feta; or asparagus, fresh peas and lemon zest. Go wild with it, but only if you can accept that you may never boil gnocchi again. I sure won’t.
Gnocchi
Adapted from About.com
2 pounds Russet potatoes
1 1/2 cups flour
1 teaspoon salt
1 large egg, lightly beaten
- Preheat your oven to 400°. Prick the potatoes all over with a fork, and bake them on a baking sheet for 45 minutes to one hour, or until they are fork-tender. For best results, turn the potatoes over halfway through the baking time. Let the potatoes cool slightly.
- Peel the potatoes, and then pass them through a potato ricer, food mill or grate them over the large holes of a box grater into a large bowl. Add the lightly beaten egg and the salt to the potatoes and mix well with a wooden spoon.
- Add the flour to the potatoes a little at a time, using only as much as you need so that the dough will not stick to your hands. When the flour has been incorporated, bring the dough together with your fingertips.
- Dump the dough and any remaining floury bits onto a slightly floured surface. Knead the dough as you would bread dough. Press down and away with the heel of your hand, fold the dough over, make a quarter turn, and repeat the process. Knead for about three or four minutes.
- Form the dough into a ball and then divide it into 6 smaller balls. On a lightly floured surface, roll out one of the six pieces using your fingertips into a long rope about ¾ inch thick. Cut the dough into 1 inch pieces.
- You can cook the gnocchi as it is now, but traditional gnocchi has ridges. To create the ridges, press each piece of dough against the tines of a fork. With your finger, gently roll the pressed dough back off the fork. This takes a little practice. If you find the dough sticking to the fork, dip the fork in flour before you press the dough against it.
- Place the gnocchi in a single layer on a lightly floured or parchment-lined dish. If you’d like to freeze them for later use, do so on this tray and once they are frozen, drop them into a freezer bag. This ensures that you won’t have one enormous gnocchi mass when you are ready to cook them.
- To cook the gnocchi, place them into a pot of boiling and well-salted water. After a few minutes the gnocchi will float to the top. Continue to cook for one minute then remove and set aside.
I can’t wait to try this! I absolutely love gnocchi, but the one time i tried to make them at home was disastrous. How many servings did this make?
Deb - I’ve been a fan of your website for awhile now but it’s my first time posting. Not that you need the validation, but your pictures are awesome! I have decided I MUST make the panmarino, it’ll be my first time baking bread so I’ll have to let you know how it goes - wish me luck! :)
I have a bunch of yukon gold potatoes I’m looking to use up and this would be a perfect recipe! Do you think the russet variety are a must in when it comes to making this??
Hi Deb, Love your site, the photos are beautiful.
I made a Mario Batali gnocchi recipe from the food network that called for boiling the potatoes, then I just mashed them with a potato masher before adding the flour, egg, and salt, and the gnocchi came out wonderfully. I boiled them, but now i MUST try the pan frying!
Mmmmm….I am definitely going to have to try these this weekend. I absolutely love gnocci. Thanks for sharing the recipe!
yum!
I know what I’m making tomorrow!
You rolled them down the fork so perfectly! Have you ever tried making gnocchi with fresh ricotta instead of potatoes? I saw a recipe for ricotta gnocchi in Donna Hay, and it gets you out of that whole potato ricer predicament. Plus, delish!
Holy smokes these look delicious. Thanks for sharing! I have to say, though, that I don’t know how you make mashed potatoes without a potato ricer. It is an inexpensive necessity!
This may mean that I am a petty person - but I’m actually glad to hear that others have had difficulty making gnocchi. I tried Batali’s recipe for squash gnocchi and it was a disaster. An utter and complete disaster that embarrassed me in front of my mother-in-law. A mother-in-law that had earlier that day suggested buying me a vacuum for my birthday, because, well … (she looks around dismissively at my home keeping). Dammit woman, I have a vacuum. I also have two children under three, so if you want a clean floor vacuum it yourself.
So I got snotty and tried to make gnocchi and failed. Miserably. Damn gnocchi. Damn you!
Wow, I tried making gnoochi and failed miserably, too, but these sound like something I could actually accomplish. Thanks!
Add me to the club–my one attempt at making gnocchi didn’t go well. Ricer be damned, maybe I’ll try it again. :)
I love the grater idea, brilliant! And your fresh pasta always looks so soft and welcoming. I’m tempted to take a nap on that tray of gnocchi.
how funny - i made gnocchi this past weekend as well… almost the same recipe… (only i did buy a potato ricer - albeit a crappy one, i’m sure, since it only cost about $6… we wont talk about how long it took me to figure out not to use the 2 plates at the same time…)
i didnt bother to do the tines - i just poked my knuckle in like Elise from Simply Recipes… no patience on my part.
however, i want my gnocchi to be meltinyourmouth like the ones at artisanal… any suggestions? do you think it would just require the addition of some butter & cream?
I’m hungover today (that is what 2 glasses of wine does to me now a days) and I would give anything for a bowl of Gnocchi right now.
Ciao
I am so glad to hear it’s not just me who found gnocchi impossible to make the first time. I hope this technique saves you as much frustration as it did me.
Mel — Apologies. I always forget to measure but I’d say it could easily serve four people moderately-sized portions. (I find gnocchi fantastically filling, so it was PLENTY.) Especially if you’re serving other things, like a big ol’ salad or olives and cheese, as we did.
Div — Good luck! I’ve got to say, I keep forgetting to put the panmarino in the freezer for storage, and it does NOT get stale. Craziness.
Maureen — You know, I suspect a potato masher would work equally well, but I haven’t tried it yet. Let me know if it works!
Sarah — No, I can imagine it would be to die for. Can you imagine it with brown butter and sage? The thought, it will torture me through my green salad lunch.
Miss Sassy — It’s because I never make and almost never, ever eat mashed potatoes. I think it’s because they’re one of those things that only taste really good if you add an avalanche of salted butter, and if you’re going to eat all of that fat, why not just eat fries? Mm, fries. I digress. It is inexpensive and I’m stupidly stubborn for not buying one. But, I’m also the girl who owned an unwrapped KitchenAid for two years. I lack rationality.
Cris — Offered to buy you a vac?! My god. Unless she’s offering to buy you someone to push that vac around (I don’t know, can you attach one to a toddling two-year-old? Does the fact that this image amuses me mean that I’ll be an unfit parent?), she does not deserve your self-criticism. I’m curious what went wrong with Batali’s recipe… too soft? Maybe squash isn’t starchy enough? Maybe it’s because you weren’t wearing orange clogs when you tried it? Hm.
Lisa — I totally think they look like pillows. In fact, I actually prefer that shape, but felt a need to try it the “proper” way, at least for this round. Seriously, though, leaving them in the just-cut shape would save a ton of time in preparation. I will certainly be doing it in the future.
I am totally making these! Looks way better than the salad I’m eating right now for lunch.
Yay, congratulations! I knew you were going to conquer the allmighty gnocchi soon :)
Just so you know, my grandma has been making potato gnocchi for mmm over 60 years and she uses a regular potato masher (I used my immersion blender when I made yam gnocchi and they worked perfectly, but that might be because yams are quite different to potatoes). What I did do when I made the gnocchi was to steam the yams instead of boling them, which I´m sure helped reduce the moisture quite a bit and I made the dough while the potatoes were still quite hot, which is what my grandma does because she says she uses less flour that way, no idea why.
As for the shape, it helps the sauce adhere to the gnocchi and helps prevent a rawish center. I bought one of those little wodden… let´s call them gnocchi rollers for like 3 pesos (1 dollar) and the rolling part doesn´t take long at all.
I hope you have a fabulous trip by the way, bring back lots of Mexican recipes for us!
Deb - hate to tell you there is a food mill attachment for the recently unpacked KA!! I think today is panmarino day - will let you know - I am not much of a baker.
Have a great time in Mexico - be careful with that thing in the sky that you haven’t seen in a while.
do they have to be baked potatoes? can they just be regular old boiled? or steamed?
Larry — Seriously, when I go to the beach, complete strangers come up to me and make sure I’ve put sunscreen on. I’m that pasty. Against a white backdrop, I practically become invisible.
Kat — The reason why the recipe suggested baked with all of the fork proddings is apparently getting the moisture out is good for the gnocchi, but I actually can’t tell you why. I’m sure the other methods would work, though it’s possible you’ll need to add more flour.
You are a genius. These look amazing!
The times I’ve made gnocchi here, I was still shuttling around apartments and never had a potato masher or mill around so I ended up peeling them with a knife and using forks to mash them manually. That was tough, but the end result was great…this is another great option! I’ll have to try this - I’ll probably feel spoiled. :)
Those look so delightful, and I don’t even really like gnocchi (always found them to be a bit heavy). Yum yum.
OMG - I LOVE GNOCCHI. To give this statement more weight, I’d married them, eat them, marry a new batch, repeat. B is not a gnocchi lover and neither is WW. BAH to both of them. These look divine. I think I’ll be making a small batch the next time he goes out of town…I wonder if I can give one of his customers a call. They might need him in Tulsa next week! (Evil grin)
The grater tip is a fantastic one, thanks. I loved gnocchi when I lived in Italy, but I have yet to attempt to make them (even though I make all sorts of other kinds of pasta and dumplings), mostly, in fact, because I don’t have a food mill or a ricer. I just got a copy of the Silver Spoon yesterday and the gnocchi section was the first one to get me drooling. I was actually thinking about putting the potatoes through the KitchenAid grinder attachment that I never use, but it’s good to know that the grater method works.
Gnocchi is one of my favorite foods. I’ve been too chicken to try making it because of the lack of proper equipment. Glad you’ve shared your new technique! I see gnocchi in my near future.
OK - I was so inspired (and avoiding the real work I had to do today) that I baked & shredded my potatoes & made my 1st ever gnocchi! Thanks for the inspiration. To continue on the KitchenAid theme, I shredded the potatoes with my KA attachment, too! Used the “small shredder” tool from the slicer/shredder attachment set & I had no problems at all. I boiled some right away to eat for lunch - pretty good, but I am trying the pan-browned technique next. Thanks, again!!
I’ve been a lurker ever since your column on NPR. I enjoy reading your culinary adventures.
Gnocchi is my favorite kind of pasta, but I have only had the vacuum packed kind from Trader Joe’s. That’s because I’m a vegetarian, no eggs even. So I don’t order them at restaurants. Do you suppose I could omit the egg from your recipe and expect reasonable results? Would you suggest a suitable substitute.
What do we think about subsituting whole wheat flour for gnocchi? LOVE gnocchi and I too have failed making them. The dough was always too sticky and tasted like flour than the ymmy goodness it should be. I’m on a whole wheat kick now and always to to use atleast half whole wheat. Thought? opinon?
Oh and another question… 2lbs of potatoes makes alot of gnocchi I would think… did you cook them all at once? how did you store them?
This is what is so great about blogging, and why I love your blog. This is the exactly the type of post new and aspiring cooks need to hear from an experienced chef like yourself. Sometimes things don’t work out, even the best are continually learning! And judging by your pictures, your dish came out great!
Smitty Kitty you continue to impress- the brown crusts on your gnocchi look like the stuff dreams are made of. Beautiful dish and gorgeous photography. I really enjoy your site:)
yours is my favorite food blog! i love your wit and your food and your photography makes me want to cook after a long, heinous day of teaching. so i made gnocchi today too! i don’t think i baked the potatoes long enough (made the gnocchi a little textured) and i added 1/4 cup grated pecorino romano to the dough (lidia from kqed’s suggestion) but for the life of me, i cannot do the fork thing. mine look like mashed, giant garden rows. if anyone has thoughts on how to work the shaping mojo, holla at me.
I can’t wait to try these, being a potato-loving gal myself. I’ve found the only hash browns worth eating are made with grated baked potatoes so this approach to gnocchi makes good sense. Maybe I can press some boys into fork adornment duty.
Beautiful gnocchi! I haven’t had the courage to try to make them — and I’m definitely not buying a ricer just for this purpose. Grating is the same technique I use to make latkes (potato pancakes). I squeeze all of the grated potato in a kitchen towel to try and extract any excess water, and then add a bit of flour. I think the hardest part of gnocchi has to be the forming, getting them to look like something I’d want to eat. I definitely want to eat yours!
I can’t wait to try these now - I purchased a gnocchi wooden roller thingy a few months ago and haven’t had the guts to try it out yet. I might do this recipe today!!!
Hi! I have been following your blog for a while and I love it! The gnocchi look amazing :) Thank you for sharing the recipe. I love gnocchi and tried to make them a few months a go and the initial batch came out ok, but I decided not to cook them all when I made them. BIG MISTAKE. I refridgerated the gnocchi and went back to cook them the next day only to find a big ball of dough!!!!!!!! Any thoughts on how to keep them without cooking them all at once? Thx!
Advice on getting the fork-marks in the dough: I found that the more floured the fork and/or piece of gnocchi was, the easier it was to make clear indentations. The shapes stayed better. The downside is you have a more flour-y pasta, but if you like that sharp shape, this is the way to go about it.
To store the gnocchi: I explain above how to freeze them for later use. (Heck, I freeze them even if I’m just using them in 12 hours. I find it easiest.) If you’d like to store them in the refrigerator, Batali suggests that you first toss the fresh gnocchi with a half-cup of canola oil. I haven’t tried this yet, so I can’t tell you for sure if it works, or if there are any cooking effects from all that oil.
Thx! I think that I will try making them this weekend… I can only hope that mine will look as nice as yours! I will probably freeze instead of using oil since I don’t think that I would want to have that extra oil on them! I can’t wait to try the recipe!
Back to the potato masher - I make mashed potatoes using the Yukon Gold boiled in water and some chicken broth. I then add some chicken broth to the potatoes after mashing and fluff with a fork. They are light and airy and delicious. Of course, on holidays I do make them with butter and milk but I really think you don’t use as much when you use the ricer.
I can’t wait to try the gnocchi!
New visitor… LOVE the site. LOVE the recipe. I can’t wait to try it. My grandmother used to have a great technique with for the fork lines that I can’t really explain to well here. She would have the gnocchi on the table and then kind of roll them with the tip of the fork tines and it would leave the lines almost perfectly.
About how many gnocchi does this recipe make?
Can you get fat from looking at photos? Because I’m pretty sure I’m gaining weight dreaming of little potato pillows.
I’m another new visitor to your site. Wow! Your gnocchi are gorgeous. bakerscatalogue.com has a gnocchi board for like $5 that I have been trying really hard to ignore, especially since my only attempt at gnocchi was alot like what your first attempt sounded like. Armed with your advice, though, I’m going to try it again, just as soon as my new gnocchi board arrives!
Deb. Lydia’s post on potatoe pancakes and her squeezing the potatoes to get all the juice reminded me of a methoed my sister uses for a Caniadan dish called Rapier??Pie.She uses a juicer with grater attachment. It grates the potatoes and extractes the juice and leaves only the pulp. I have an old ACME juicer. Haven’t tried it because i’ve misplaced the instruction book. It may be worth a try . Sure beats all that squeezing.
After reading this post, Deb, I thought that I must try this! I’ve never been a huge fan of gnocchi having eaten only the chewy store bought freezer section type, altho I do have a faint memory of having had them somewhere in the Tuscan country-side in some quaint taverna… After baking, peeling and grating the potatoes I started feeling really dejected, looking at my large strips of baked potatoes sitting in a bowl that probably wasn’t big enough. Thought I’d have to throw the whole thing out, but I persevered and currently have somewhere around 50 gnocchi sitting in my quick freeze tray YAY! Haven’t sampled them yet, but I’m sure they will taste marvelous.
Also, I used Idaho potatoes instead of Russet just because I didn’t need a 5 lb bag rotting under my counter, but if my BF loves them I may start buying large sacks of Russets :)
Gorgeous. Absolutely gorgeous. I bow to your gnocchi greatness…
Hi Deb - The squash gnocchi recipe failure. Well, to my untrained eye, I think it had to do with the wetness of the squash. I roasted them upside down, riced them so that they would steam out liquid in piles all over the counter, and then strained them overnight; all in an effort to dry them out as per Batali. But I still had to add an inordinate amount of flour and they ended up (after a quick boil and then pan fry with brown butter and sage) being inedible lumps of orange flour (no squash taste to be found). But the brown butter and sage sauce was fantastic. After serving HRH the mother-in-law I hid out in the kitchen and sopped up the sauce (and my pride) in the kitchen.
And no, the toddler/vac image made me laugh. I am currently trying to work that out. Perhaps that makes me unfit? There are days where the state is welcome to take them!
I made them Friday night and they were easy enough and quite tasty. Not exactly beautiful, as I couldn’t seem to manage the whole fork decor operation very well but no one minded. My incredibly picky kids could not get enough so that’s really saying something. Thanks!
I wanted to say to the Yukon gold gal that my grandmother swears that any other potato besides the russet provides waxy gnocchi that are sub-par. In my family we make them with ricotta, we call them Cavatelli. We have them every year on Christmas eve, and sometimes it’s hard to wait. I highly suggest them to one and all. It’s a traditional Puglian pasta, and I eat mine slowly as to savor the texture and flavor. As a side note, I’m recently Celiac (no gluten) so does anyone know what flour can substitute? I want to join the pan frying gnocchi lovers too!
Oh, and I forgot- my grandmother says absolutely NO steaming or boiling- as it adds the totally unwanted water factor- which equals more flour- which equals a very gummy and icky gnocchi.
I cant wait to go home and make some gnocchi! Both dishes look so yummy!
I’m sick as dog right now, and whenever I get a cold, I get crazy urges to cook. I made these this afternoon and they were amazing. I already have a ricer but I never find uses for it - so I used it for this and it worked perfectly. I sauteed them in butter and fresh parsley, then served them with pesto. It was really fantastic and just what I needed for comfort food.
I was in Italy several weeks ago and had gnocchi several times, and these were very reminiscent of the food I ate there. Thank you so so much for this recipe.
Victory! I have now, thanks to you, made gnocchi of my very own! I cannot tell you how happy I am to have done this - and how nice it is to have a bagful in my freezer! Thanks so much! I served them with pancetta and broccoli rabe and they were awesome!
Those are the most perfectly formed gnocchi I have ever seen!
These were wonderful. I tossed mine with roasted pieces of acorn squash and asparagus tips, and parmigiano-reggiano.
Loved this recipe! Loe your philosophy about making the salad with what’s on hand. I used crumbled Asiago cheese and wilted greens along with the sweet little grape tomotoes and (yikes) Trader Joe’s already made Gnocci! I’m sure scratch would be even better.
I will make them from scratch however, because my husband can’t eat wheat, I will be using sweet rice flour in its place.
I just made them with instant potatoes, they look good, haven’t eaten them yet…. Do you think this is cheating?????
Basically one cup of instant potatoes, reconstituted with one cup boiling water, let cool, one beaten egg and 1 and a half cups of flour (I didn’t measure the flour because I tripled the recipe, but add to make dough fairly stiff.) Add salt and pepper and continue with rolling and cutting……
These are so tasty, and easy to boot! I couldn’t get the fork to make the grooves properly–the dough just springed back after pressing the tines against it. It didn’t seem to make much difference for them to be smooth, though (especially pan-fried, without the need for sauce to stick to them).
My neighborhood market carries wonderful homemade gnocchi for cheap, but I’m moving away soon. So glad I can make them myself now. Thanks for sharing them!
I saw this here a few days ago and I just HAD to try it. Your explination made so much sense.
So now I have me some puffy and beautiful gnocchi freezing away to be eaten later this way.
I didn’t make the fork marks though, since I was afraid to make the little dears too dense.
Can’t wait to try them.
I haven’t tried this recipe…maybe I’ll be brave enough to give gnocchi one last try. But previously I have always had them turn to paste in the water. Any ideas why?
Too much/little flour? Too much/not enough kneading? Any thoughts? I’d hate to
have it be a procedural issue and give up entirely when there’s a great recipe like
this to try.
Hi Bri — I’m not entirely sure, but I’m wondering if there wasn’t enough egg binder if they were able to dissolve in the water. Or perhaps they were over-boiled? Pretty much, they only need to be cooked one minute beyond the point when the water boils. Over-kneading them can definitely make them wetter. I have found in my practice that the less done do the potatoes, the better, as they’re just full of water itching to be released. Good luck!
I tried this last weekend and they were delicious! So light and fluffy, not chewy in the least. It was easy enough that I wonder how they could be so tough at many restaurants. *shrug*
A few tips I picked up from further internet research:
-the hotter the potatoes are when you grate them, the lighter the gnocchi
-after grating, spread the potatoes out in a thin layer and allow to cool completely
-you can precook the gnocchi by the instructions above and then put on a cookie sheet coated with butter. When ready to eat, throw them back into the water until they’re warm. They were still tender this way.
I know I’m late on the scene, but I faced a similar dilemma when trying to make gnocchi. I knew I would never ever use a ricer for anything but gnocchi, and I’m not a fan of unitaskers.
However, I had recently gotten a Kitchen Aid mixer…. and it occurred to me that the food grinder attachment would probably do the trick too. Plus I could use it for burgers, sausages, sauces, applesauce, and so on.
It worked beautifully.
Good luck in your gnocchi exploits down the road!
Hi Deb, this one looks nice and easy - silly me had never even thought of making my own gnocchi (and there’s never enough for my liking in the pre-made packets) but lo-and-behold the girl on kids show Hi-5 made gnocchi and I thought - WOW, I’m soooo making my own too!! So here I go in the search for easy recipes..
Now my question is about the potatoes. Do you think it matters if they are russet potatoes or what (I usually just have sebago or brushed on hand)… and as for the 2lbs worth… I’m in Oz and use g/kg and I know I could just find a conversion but can you say HOW MANY potatoes this is? Are russet big or small ones?
Thanks, Natalie
I’ve had this bookmarked for 6 months. I was a little nervous to try it; I’ve had enough failed attempts (without the ricer) to be a little gun shy. Let me just say now that these are the best gnocchi I have ever had. Fluffy pillows of love!
For Natalie or anyone else wondering, I used four large but not enormous floury potatoes (russets) and almost exactly 1 1/2 cups of all-purpose flour. They were still sticky on the cut ends of gnocchi but I figured it’s easier to add more flour than the other way around and they cooked up beautifully. They puff very slightly when they’re done, so if you’re watching carefully you can tell but timing a minute works well too. I’m going to try making them with purple Peruvian potatoes next, they’ll look so pretty next to something green. Thanks Deb!
This is by far my favourite foodie site out there in the ether. Just a note on shaping and the grooves: they are necessary because they help the inside of the dumplings cook properly.
I use a dedicated spackle knife to fold flour into the potatoes. Using a wide blade and folding the mass prevents the use of excessive flour.
Deb - you have a wonderful site. I’ve only been privy to it for a few months, but clearly I’ve started searching the archives. Do you think a simple vegetable peeler would do the job here? I’ve been contemplating this recipe for a few weeks and the idea of using a peeler came to me yesterday while peeling carrots (for pickled carrots — if you must know).
Thanks for all your wonderful ideas!
Thank you at least a million times over if not more. I had jumped on here for the express purpose of deciding whether or not my strainer would do the trick of the potato ricer….and here ensues a HUGE sigh of relief. Now on to the grater!!! :)
Made these tonight and they were wonderful (check my blog for photos)! Fluffy and not at all heavy on the stomach like the ones from the shops and a lot of fun (though a bit messy and sticky) to make!! Many thanks! Absolutely love your site!!!
Try adding equal parts whole milk ricotta. It makes them creamy and light.
Love the blog, always enjoy reading it. I really like these gnocchi. I just made a gnocchi with choux pastry for the first time and it was incredible. Come take a look if you have a chance and let me know what you think. http://cookingquest.wordpress.com
Thanks so much!
Joe
This lady must weigh 10000 pounds eating Gnocchi all day. Later tubbo!