Recipe : Potato gnocchi

Our initial plan was to make rosti or fried potato like an omelette. The rosti recipe calls for half-boiled potatoes which we can grate. However, we overboiled the potatoes and they turned mushy when grated. So, my son and I decided to turn the mashed potatoes into gnocchi. I have an old post on different potatoes over here.

After my not so successful gnocchi (pronounced as : no-ki) attempt, I let my son deal with it. His recipe from KDU calls for :

Gnocchi recipe

Ingredients :

600 grams potatoes – best bake or steam till cooked. Mash the potatoes.

150 grams or thereabout flour – quantity depends on how much is needed for you to get a firm dough

2 eggs yolks

salt to taste

gnocchi

Method :

Mash the potatoes. Add in the egg yolks, salt and flour and mix till you get a smooth ball. Roll them into oblong and cut them into tiny pieces.

gnocchi

They look like tiny pillows. You can either use a fork and make some indents or like what we did, just make a tiny indent in the middle with our fingers. Just press gently to give it a tiny dimple.

gnocchi

Boil a pot of water and drop in the gnocchi in batches. Do not put too many at one go or they may stick together. The gnocchi cooks very fast. They will float to the surface of the boiling water when cooked.

Meanwhile, for the sauce.

I heat some olive oil, a dab of butter and some chopped garlic and fresh basil in another pan. When the gnocchi is cooked, I just transfer them over so that they do not stick together.

The gnocchi can be eaten that way. Just sprinkle some grated cheese like parmesan or matured cheddar. Otherwise, if you like add a bit of bottled spaghetti sauce.

I used Agnesi pesto sauce.

pesto sauce

The pesto sauce is made of walnuts, goat’s cheese, cow’s cheese and tomatoes. Actually, we can also make pesto sauce at home if we have fresh herbs like sweet basil and pine nuts. But that will be another kitchen experiment for another day.

This second attempt at making gnocchi is much more successful and the texture is lighter and fluffier as we didn’t use that much flour. I believe my problem in the previous attempt lies with the washed potatoes from Australia. The potatoes just ooze too much liquid. With only russet potatoes from USA, making gnocchi is a breeze. My earlier post on making gnocchi over here.

3 Replies to “Recipe : Potato gnocchi”

  1. The type of potatoes definitely makes the difference, your son’s version of gnocchi looks pretty good. If you’re in the mood for more gnocchi, may I suggest substituting potatoes for ricotta cheese? It is completely out of this world too, especially when the gnocchisare pan-fried. They have a very nice crispy exterior texture with a pillowy center. 🙂

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