Have Lots of Potatoes? Make Gnocchi!

Last Monday on my day off, I made homemade gnocchi. I love love gnocchi, the little pillows or clouds of potatoey goodness. In a tomato sauce, or pesto they are so light and fluffy in my mouth. I need to try browned gnocchi still. I had a bag of potatoes laying around and potato dishes were on my mind to use them up. Gnocchi use at least 5 medium size potatoes, more if they are smaller. Don't be afraid to make your own gnocchi, and it will taste way better than the store-bought version, trust. On to the recipe!

First, gather together your ingredients. 5 medium-sized Russet potatoes (weighing 2.2 lbs total), 2 egg yolks, 1 1/2 cup flour, 1 tablespoon olive oil, salt. 

Boil the potatoes but don't, I repeat don't, peel them before you boil them. If you can't, don't even pierce the potatoes to check to see if they are done. Piercing a potato will allow water into the potato, water is not gnocchi's best friend. You can boil an extra potato to use as your test potato if you choose. For small-sized potatoes, they will cook in about 10-15 minutes, medium sized potatoes about 20-25 minutes and large potatoes 30-35 minutes. 

When your potatoes are cooked, drain the water and let them cool. 

Once your potatoes are cool enough to handle, peel them and then mash them. 

I used a ricer, if you don't have a ricer, just use a fork to mash them. Mash the potatoes enough so there are no lumps. Allow the mashed potatoes to cool to room temperature. 

In a bowl, combine the mashed potatoes, the slightly beaten egg yolks and olive oil.  

In a smaller bowl, add the flour and a little bit of salt. Sprinkle the flour mixture over the potato mixture. Flour your counter to knead the potato and flour mixture into a dough. Combine all the potato and flour together into a smooth dough but don't over knead the potato dough. 

Divide the dough into 8 parts, and roll each part of the dough out into a snake and cut the pieces about 3/4 inch.

 In boiling salted dough, drop about 12-15 pieces of gnocchi and cook them about 2 minutes, when the gnocchi are cooked, they will float to the surface.

 I have two sheet pans full of gnocchi pieces. I cooked half and froze the other half for dinners later one. Gnocchi will keep in the freezer very well up to 2 months.

 

If you have a gnocchi board, you can roll one side of the gnocchi on the board before you drop them into the water to cook. You can also roll the gnocchi along the tongs of a fork if you like the ridges.

After my gnocchi were cooked, I put them in a pan with tomato sauce and some mozzarella cheese but there are so many different sauces you can put on top of the gnocchi. Then serve, eat and enjoy!