The taste, density, and shape is very versatile. I have tried so many different types that I was able to find my favorite style of gnocchi. Although I am never disappointed by gnocchi, I generally like the lighter, more potato-y (yes, I made up my own word), more similar to a potato cake. Typcially, the ones you buy in the store are tend to more dense and doughy. How yours comes out depends entirely on how you make, whether it is with more or less flour.
I have researched, researched, researched to find the perfect gnocchi recipe for the light pillowy gnocchi that I was going for. I searched endless amounts of blogs and recipe sites, and I knew that it was not going to be easy to achieve this type of delicate gnocchi. Luckily I found a blog that made the type of gnocchi I wanted, with step by step instructions, with pictures (thank goodness). Shout out
to this amazing recipe that helped me through this painstaking process.
The ingredients
Scant 2 pounds of starchy potatoes (2 large russets)
1/4 cup egg, lightly beaten
scant 1 cup of unbleached all-purpose flour
fine grain sea salt
I found some recipes that only called for potato and sprinkles of flour, which is something I would like to try in the future, but for now, I'm glad I had the flour and egg to bind it all together
I started with boiling the potatoes for 50 mins, a lot longer that I thought. I had a hunger roommate so when she heard that just boiling the potatoes was a little less than an hour she was not a happy camper.
After fifty minutes, I removed the potatoes from the pot and waited until they were cool enough to peel. Once I peeled them, I began the process of breaking up the potato to be combined together into the gnocchi dough. Everywhere that I read said that this process was the most important in creating the consistency you wanted. Typically, you'd use a potato ricer for this process, but since I did not have one, I followed the recipe's instructions of "deconstructing" the potato running the tines of fork down the sides. The potato mound was a little more lumpy so I'm assuming I did not master the fork method on my first try. After I "deconstructed" all the potato, I began to gently fold the egg and half of the flour into the potato, using a rubber spatula to incorporate the ingredients together.
After I mixed the right amount of ingredients, the dough was too delicate to roll out into a snake-shaped log to cut into little bits of gnocchi, so I continued to add more flour. I was waiting for the dough to become firm, but it began to get sticky. I ended up rolling the dough through flour as I formed the potato log, which ended up working for the most part. I had already added more flour than I would have liked, so I knew that I was past the light potato-y consistency I was going for. I cut the low into tiny pillow-shaped gnocchi, ready for cooking.
There are several ways to cook gnocchi. The most popular way is to boil it, like pasta. I decided to pan-fry it, which lightly crusts the outside of gnocchi. I added a thin layer of vegetable oil to the bottom of the frying pan on medium heat. I cooked 7-9 at a time, and flipped after 30 secs- 1 min, or until golden brown. I decided to serve the fresh cooked gnocchi over a layer of ricotta cheese, and topped with pesto.
As I figured, the gnocchi was not that light delicate consistency that I was hoping for, but it did not turn out as dense or doughy as the store-bought ones. It was pretty delicious if I do say so myself. I learned a lot about the art of gnocchi making (and trust me, it is an art). I'm excited to try it again soon, and hopefully nail down that soft, potato cake-like gnocchi that I've been looking for.
(Points off for food presentation)
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