Gnocchi
======= 2024-01-15 *


Comment: there are several kinds of gnocchi, including French style, which consist of a simple choux pastry, and another Italian version uses cornmeal. This is the most traditional Italian version.
Gnocchi deserve their own sauce, for example tomato, even if they accompany meat that already has its own. Finally, the gnocchi are even better, either lightly browned in the pan, or baked in the oven with a tomato sauce or au gratin, before serving. Do not peel the potatoes before cooking so that they are not full of water. Regarding the egg, 3 options:
- 1 whole egg
- 1 yolk only
- no egg
The 3 variants exist.
My choice is just one egg yolk.


References: Gnocchi
         and: Potato Gnocchi

4 people

Ingredients:
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500 grams of potatoes (prefer floury varieties - Russet, Yukon Gold)
1 egg yolk
150 g to 200 g flour
2 to 3 CS EVOO (opt?)
a pinch of salt
pepper
a few grated nutmegs (opt)
1 bay leaf (opt)


Preparation:
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Cook the potatoes in fairly salty water (20 g/l) with 1 bay leaf (opt), without peeling them.

Peel the potatoes once cooled a little and mash them well in a salad bowl.
Add salt, EVOO and nutmeg (opt).
Make a well, add the egg yolk, and form a dough while incorporating just enough flour so that the dough no longer sticks.
Mix (kneed) the dough well to obtain a homogeneous mixture.

Work on a sufficiently floured surface.

Cut the dough into small portions, then roll each piece into a thin sausage of ~1 cm in diameter and cut into sections of less than 2 cm. The gnocchi will increase slightly in volume when cooked.

They can be fluted by crushing (not too much) each gnocchi on a fork, then closing it into a small cylinder. There are also small grooved boards for fluting gnocchi.
Place them on a floured surface (or a floured cloth), then cook them in boiling salted water. When they are cooked, they rise to the surface. Cook them for another 1 to 2 minutes so that they are well cooked inside.

The easiest way to serve them is to make enough sauce (for example gorgonzola sauce or tomato), and reheat them in sauce before serving.

A better option is to pan fry them to lightly brown them before adding them to the sauce.

Another option after frying them is to make a béchamel sauce:
50 g of butter,
50g g of flour,
600 ml of milk,
S + P
then off the heat add 150 g of grated Parmigiano-Reggiano.
Place the gnocchi in this sauce, then pour everything into a gratin dish.
Sprinkle with a little grated cheese, then bake for 30 minutes in an oven preheated to 180C near the top to brown.