Lovely potato pasta made with just potatoes, flour, and salt. These delightful pillows pair well with most pasta sauces but have a distinct potato-y flavor that will make your Irish ancestors grin. Not to mention it only takes about 2 minutes to cook them when they're done. Although this recipe makes a lot, the raw gnocchi can be frozen.
Sauce recipe ideas:
The recipe is here, and pictures of the process are below:
Ingredients:
2.2 lbs. russet potatoes
300 g all purpose flour
1 tsp. salt
Directions:
Wash your potatoes well and do not peel them. Place them in a pot and cover with 1-2 inches of cold water. Bring to a boil and boil for 20 minutes.
Remove the potatoes and peel while still hot (the suffering will be worth it).
Mash the potatoes very thoroughly with a mixer, masher, or potato ricer. Thre should be no potato lumps.
Dump the potatoes onto a clean work surface. Add 300 g flour mixed with 1 tsp. salt and begin mixing in gently into the potatoes. It will seem like there is too much flour and it's a disaster, but just keep kneading. Only mix/knead until the flour is incorporated, don't overmix. The dough should be soft and pliable.
Roll handful-sized pieces of the dough into 3/4 inch (2 cm) wide strips and cut 1 cm wide pillows out with a knife. You can shape each pillow with a fork, if desired. Place on parchment paper or a lightly floured work surface. Repeat with remaining dough.
To cook, bring a large pot of water with 1-2 tsp. salt up to a boil. Drop in about 20-40 gnocchi at a time. When they are cooked they will float to the top and you can strain them. Continue in batches until complete. Then you can fry them or immediately place them in your prepared sauce.
To freeze (if desired), freeze gnocchi on a single layer of parchment paper. Then combine in a container or bag. Use within 1 month. To cook from frozen simply cook in smaller batches since the cold temperature drops the water temperature significantly.
Makes about 250 gnocchi.
The potatoes in cold water before boiling.
While boiling.
After boiling peel the skin off while they're still hot.
After peeling and before mashing.
After finely mashing the potatoes. Next we'll add the flour + salt mixture.
After adding the flour and salt and before kneading in.
After kneading the flour in. Look at that beautiful baby!
Now you take a handful (my hand is for comparison) and begin to roll it out.
After rolling into a 2 cm wide cylinder.
After cutting into 1 cm wide pillows
You can use a fork to make the little ridges, but this is optional. Then place them on parchment paper.
All the beautiful gnocchi. I usually make 2 batches, and freeze one. Half I use for each pasta dish.
To cook gnocchi bering water with salt up to a boil:
Add the gnocchi and at first they will sink to the bottom.
When they float to the top 1-2 minutes later they are done!
And you can strain them and use them in a sauce!
The original recipe is here: https://aseasyasapplepie.com/how-to-make-gnocchi/