Learn how to make your own soft and chewy gnocchi. You are only 3 ingredients away from having a constant supply in the freezer to enjoy whenever you want!
Preparation:
To cook:
Level: Easy
Serves: 2
Ingredients
- 400 grams Floured Potatoes With Skin On (ideally Desire, Marfona, King Edward, or Maris Piper)
- ½ whole Egg yolk, beaten
- 100 grams Plain flour
Preparation
Preheat the oven to 200°C (400°F). Wash, pat dry and pierce the potato skins all over with a fork. You want as much liquid as possible to escape from the potatoes. Place in the middle of the oven.
Depending on the size of the potatoes, cook for 1h to 1h30. Check from time to time if they are done by piercing with a fork.
Remove the potatoes from the oven and cut them in half. Using a clean kitchen towel to protect your hands from the heat, scoop out the middle of the potatoes and push them through a potato masher. I believe you can crush them although I haven’t tried that.
Spread the potatoes out on a clean work surface to steam them so that more moisture evaporates. This step is most effective if you can do this and the previous step as quickly as possible (while still very hot).
After a few minutes, when the steam is gone, dust the tops of the potatoes with flour. Lightly grind a little salt on top. Make a well in the middle and place half the beaten egg yolk in the middle.
Fold the mixture inward with your hands and knead it lightly. Fold it only as much as needed to get a smooth consistency and no more. We are talking about 6 to 8 folds maximum inwards.
Sprinkle the surface with more flour if necessary. Take a lemon-sized piece of dough and roll it out into a sausage shape with your hands. Take a knife (or a cookie cutter) and cut pieces of about 2 cm along the sausage. They should look pretty much like cute little pillows with each cut. If you want, you can use the back of a fork to create indentations on it to give that nice grooved look.
If you plan to freeze some or all of the gnocchi, dust a freezer safe plate or baking sheet with flour and place in the freezer for at least 1-2 hours. Remove and distribute in freezer bags.
When you’re ready to cook, bring a pot of well-salted water to a boil. Dip the gnocchi in the water. If you’re cooking from fresh, they should start to float after a few minutes. If you are cooking frozen, it will take a little longer.
When the gnocchi float, remove them from the pan. You can either cover them immediately with sauce or lightly sauté them to give them a crispier edge (which I personally recommend). Come back!
