Buon Appetito: Gnocchi di patate

Thursday, 7 February 2013

Gnocchi di patate

Gnocchi are pretty famous all over the world. It's a simple and nutritious dish and it goes well with diverse kinds of sauces. This dish has ancient origins, it seems that gnocchi has been a traditional Italian pasta type of probably Middle Eastern origin since Roman times. At that time, gnocchi were made from wheat, rice or semolina flour porridge-like dough mixed with eggs or milk. Of course the recipe has changed since then. The use of potato is a relatively recent innovation occurring after the introduction of the potato to Europe in the 16th century. Today, the most diffused recipe of Gnocchi di Patate in Italy only contains flour, potatoes and eggs.

Ingredients:
600g plain flour (you can use other kinds of flour)
1.5Kg of potatoes (floury potatoes are suggested)
1 egg

Wash and boil the potatoes in salted water. Let them cool down, peel and mash them. Mix the mash potato with the flour, when the mixture is homogeneous add the egg. Knead all together until a soft dough forms. If the mixture is still sticky add some more flour, the amount of flour depends on the type of potatoes you are using. Add the flour little by little, too much flour will make the cooked gnocchi heavy and tough, while too little flour will cause gnocchi to disintegrate during cooking.

Cut a piece of dough and using your hands, gently roll it out on a floured surface to form a log about 2cm wide. Cut each log into 1.5cm-long pieces. Place them all on a floured cloth and let them rest for at lest half-hour.

To cook the gnocchi, put them in boiling salted water. The cooking will take few minutes, as they cook, gnocchi will rise to the surface of the water. Continue cooking gnocchi at the surface for few seconds more then remove with a large slotted spoon and drain well.

Serve the gnocchi with your favorite sauce and Buon Appetito!