I’ve always loved gnocchi but never thought about making it from scratch until I saw my new favorite blog Smitten Kitchen’s post for gnocchi in tomato broth. She said it was easy to put together and it was!
Next time it will be even easier now that I have a little practice. I ended up half baking and half microwaving the potatoes because I accidentally had the oven at 350 (instead of 400) and it was taking forever! Then I wasn’t following the recipe right and ended up having to throw a few out because I didn’t use enough flour and they were too potatoey soggy. But when I finally paid attention to the recipe, they turned out fantastic!
I used a box grater
I was in the mood for vodka pink sauce, so I used this recipe instead of tomato broth. I definitely want to try her tomato broth sometime though; it looks delicious. Also, I just did a half recipe.
1 pound baking potatoes
1/2 egg
Salt
1/4 + 1/4 + 1/8 cup flour + flour for dusting
- Bake (@400 degrees for about 45 minutes to an hour) or microwave (I am not sure how long since I half baked mine :-)) potatoes until tender and let cool (I stuck mine in the freezer for a few to rush the cooling).
- Boil a big pot of salted water.
- Peel potatoes. I found peeling with my fingers was the easiest way.
- Using the largest holes on a cheese grater, grate the potatoes. There might be some tough parts of the potato that won’t grate. This is okay, only the soft part should go into the gnocchi. The process feels a little awkward at first, but it works.
- Add the egg and a little salt and mix together with your hands.
- Add the flour: first 1/4 of a cup, then another 1/4 of a cup, then the 1/8 of a cup.
- Kneed for a minute or so until a nice dough forms.
- Split the dough into a few pieces and roll each into a narrow tube (1/2 – 3/4 of an inch). Dust with flour.
- Cut into little pieces with a knife.
- Throw the gnocchi into the boiling water in a few batches. Once they float, boil for another minute or so, then remove with a slotted spoon.
- Top with your favorite sauce.
