I find myself most often intimidated by the simplest recipes.
Only 3 ingredients to make something delicious? Then there must be some secret perfect combination of the items that makes for the perfect ‘basic’ treat.
Gnocchi is a prime example of this fear. I refuse to try to make them.
- Potatoes
- Flour
- Salt
- Egg
No thanks. I’ll mess it up.
But Thursdays are gnocchi days in Rome. Most restaurants will offer the creamy dumplings on their giovedi menus and I never pass up a chance to order it.
Now, Parla Food has scared me off packaged gnocchi forever.
Goodbye, my easy corner-store dinner. I’ll miss you!
I guess I will have to learn to make it myself now…
Gee, never thought anyone would say they’re scared of a simple recipe like gnocchi. Now there are two of us in the world. My cleaning lady whips up a kilo of the things in the time it takes to boil a kilo of potatoes, kneads in a bit of flour and an egg. Then she rolls them off a fork onto the ‘tavola’ board where she kneads things and voilà….our gnocchi.
To have fresh gnocchi on hand it would be great idea to find a ‘pasta fresca’ in your area and keep them frozen in the freezer. They are usually quite good if you know that your store makes them with real potatoes and not flakes…to freeze them just put them on a baking sheet lined with parchment. Freeze them and when they are good and hard-frozen take out the sheet, give it a whack on the counter and put all the gnocchi in a plastic bag for later use. Boil them frozen…and enjoy.
Another way to enjoy them is to buy them in a ‘salumeria’ where they make big tubs of the things already sauced. You then put individual containers in your freezer and nuke them if you have a MWave….or heat them in the oven.
PS: you could try making a two large potatoe dosage just to see if it works…1 yolk and enough flour to make it look like a pastry dough. Then roll out little cigars and cut them into bits. If you don’t want to roll them off the fork you can use them in bits. Hey, the flavour is the same.
Or if you’re really desperate…give me a mail a week ahead of time so I can get my lady to whip up a batch. Then hop on the train and come up to the Talahassee part of the peninsula.
un abbraccio da ponente, P
yea.. packaged gnocchi are gross! try to make them. it will be a fun adventure.. i am lucky because my italian mother in law makes them for us (for now)
I love it how the main ingredient in the packaged gnocchi is “fiocchi di patate”. Barf.
Making really good gnocchi isn’t a piece of cake but it’s doable. I think the toughest part is finding the time to practice until you learn to feel the proper consistency of the dough with your fingers. following a recipe is simple enough but flour, eggs, and potatoes differ so it takes some practice to get to know how the ingredients should feel. Using good eggs and flour also goes a long way. If you try to make them yourself it would be great to read about it 🙂 in bocca al lupo!!
Forgot to add a very important thing about the potatoes that you use to make gnocchi!
THEY HAVE TO BE OLD CROP potatoes so that the starch content is more than the water content in the tuber!
Good luck!
Thanks so much for the tip! I would never have guessed that you can’t use new potatoes as easily, but the starch thing makes sense.
Yeah, I’m scared of making gnocchi too, but I’m a disaster in the kitchen, so…
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