Everyone is home for Christmas which means enjoying some of our favourite meals together.
This recipe ticks pretty much all of the boxes. It is a family favourite that doesn’t break the bank and can be bulk prepped and frozen in advance.
Can you get much more perfect than that?
Ingredients
- *two pounds potatoes
- *three cups 00 Flour (or use AP)
- 2 eggs
- 2 tsp salt
- 1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil
- *500g meat or marinara sauce or one jar of pesto
- Salt, pepper
- Grated hard cheese &/or chopped herbs for garnish (optional)
- *Harmony Farm products
Equipment
- Cutting board
- Paring knife
- Large pot
- Potato ricer (or masher of some sort)
- Large bowl for mixing
- Gnocchi board (or use the tines of a fork)
- Sheet pan
- “Spider” or slotted spoon
Method
Wash potatoes then boil them whole and unpeeled in well salted water.
If they have a few blemishes, don’t worry about that as things like scab are purely cosmetic and they will be peeled off after boiling
While they are boiling you can collect all of your other equipment and ingredients. This is also a good time to start defrosting your sauce, either flat on the counter or in a sink full of water.
Keep a close eye on the potatoes and strain them thoroughly in a colander once they are quite tender. Give them a shake in the colander to get as much water off as possible. Then return them to the dry pot and leave them uncovered so the remaining water will steam off. While they are drying, pick them up one at a time and, holding them with a clean cloth so that you don’t burn yourself, start peeling the skins off with a paring knife. Peeling them after they are cooked is much easier and produces much less waste. Be sure to do this while they are still hot for best results.
Give your potato pot a quick wash then re-fill it with water, salt it well and place on a hot burner so that your pasta water will be ready when you need it. This is also a good time to start warming tomato sauce if you are using it. Keep it in a little pot next to your pasta pot so that you can easily transfer the gnocchi as they cook.
Once the potatoes are peeled, mash them well. I have found that a potato ricer does the best job but if you don’t have one, no worries, just mash them as uniformly as you can until there are no big chunks left.
Add olive oil, salt, beaten eggs and 2 cups of flour to the mashed potatoes and stir everything together. Once the dough has just come together, turn it out on a counter, dusted with the remaining flour and knead it gently until it forms a really nice and uniform dough ball.
Cut the dough ball into four pieces. Work with one piece at a time and cover remaining pieces so that they do not dry out. Gently sprinkle the piece you are working with some flour then begin to roll it out like a playdough snake. Keep rolling until the snake is about 3/4″ diameter. Then cut the snake into 3/4″ pieces.
Dunk each piece in flour to keep it from sticking then roll it over a gnocchi board or the tines of a fork to add a little bit of texture for the sauce to stick to. Place finished gnocchi on a sheet pan, dusted with flour.
Cook the gnocchi, 1/2 a batch at a time, so that there is lots of room and they do not stick to each other. Pour them into the pot of boiling water and gently stir to keep them moving. They will float to the top when then are cooked. This takes about 3 minutes. When you see them floating, scoop them out with a slotted spoon and toss them with the sauce. Cook the second half the same way.
Serve with a bit of grated cheese and some copped herbs if you like.
Time Savers, Storage Tips and Spin off Recipes
- These little dumplings freeze like a dream!
- Go ahead and upscale the recipe as much as you like.
- Extra gnocchi can be frozen on a parchment-lined sheet pan until solid (~1-2 hours) then vacuum sealed in meal-sized portions
- Cook from frozen just like it is described above
Did you Know?
Potatoes, so often maligned in a climate of carb conscious consumers, have a lot to offer!
They are high in vitamins C and B6, potassium and fiber and are low in calories
Different varieties of potato offer unique phytochemicals that correlate with the colours they display.
One concern about consuming foods high in starch is the blood sugar spike (and subsequent dip) that this can cause.
Starting your meal with a salad (veggies and homemade vinaigrette) or pairing potatoes with other veg, protein and fat (like in this recipe) will delay gastric emptying and lead to a longer and smoother increase in blood glucose. This prevents issues that go along with glucose spikes and dips such as mid-day hunger, low energy and brain fog.
| This Recipe’s Plant Count: 9 if you use marinara sauce; 11 if you add a chopped herb and some black pepper |
| Time required: 45 minutes (or the time to boil water to prepare from frozen) |
| # Servings: 8 main course servings |
Harmony Kitchen 