Gnocchi from Scratch
I’m going to take you through my process and my thoughts on each of the steps. In the ends, I was able to have a delicious plate of homemade gnocchi. the process really is as I had seen it so many times on all those mesmerizing food creation videos. Truly amazing!
As my first time making this, I searched for a recipe that did not require eggs, but was still going to make the fluffiest gnocchi. This was the one that I found from The Curious Chickpea
My first successful gnocchi, look how many i had to practice on to get this right!
That back of the gnocchi has that perfect divot
Gnocchi from Scratch
2 Large russet potatoes
2.5 cups flour
2 tbsp oil
2 tsp salt
The dough:
Wash the potato, skin will be kept on during cooking process
Place potatoes into a shallow pan and only fill up to 2 inches of water
I think stovetop is faster and only filling up with a bit of water prevents the potato from getting too much moisture
Cook until its easily pierced with a fork
For larger potato, cook a bit longer past that because there’s just more potato to cook through
Drain the water and wait for the potatoes to cool until you can handle
I returned it to the hot pan so that any leftover water would be sure to be evaporated
Peel the potatoes
Mash the potatoes
With enough determination, you too can mash a potato with just a fork
Add the oil, salt, and flour
10/10 would recommend using a large enough bowl, a lesson I learned the hard way
Mix that together until you get a dough to form, keep covered so that it stays warm
The gnocchi:
Prep your gnocchi forming station with two flour dusted plates, one for the finished gnocchi and one for the dough rolling and forming
Cut out a section of dough and roll with your hands to form a log shape
Use a butter knife to cut into smaller pieces
Roll in a bit of flour so its not that sticky
I found this step is help in making sure the dough does not stick to the tines of the fork
Using the back of a fork, roll out the dough by pushing your thumb along the length of the fork
If you experience difficulties, simply reshape the dough and use a smaller piece of dough
The boil:
Boil a large pot of salted water
Carefully drop in gnocchi into the water
I did this one by one because I kept splashing myself with the boiling hot water
Wait for it to float to the top
Scoop out and drop into the pan
The pan:
Heat oil in the pan
This is where I crisped up the potato chunks that I couldn’t mash
Chop up the frozen asparagus into bite sized pieces and add to the pan
Keep adding in the gnocchi as they rise to the surface of the water, a little of the water helps build a saucy layer
Top with basil ribbons, lemon squeeze, red chili flakes, salt, and pepper
Enjoy!
Final cooking notes:
Since I only had a fork available for mashing so the dough ended up being more lumpy than if I had used a ricer or a masher. It still works! All I had to do was pick the larger pieces out as I was rolling out the dough. I saved them to cook with the final product. #nofoodwaste
This can be served however you like. I just did a quick pan cook because I was hungry after spending the afternoon shaping each individual gnocchi
Final delicious product!
