Gnocchi (potato dumplings)

Fantastic first course and briliant when you have nothing else in the house but potatoes, rest assured it will be loved by everybody.

Ingredients for the gnocchi (3 people):

• 500gr red potatoes, such as roosters

• 175gr plain flour

• Fine salt

• Semolina

• 1 egg yolk (optional)

Ingredients for the sauce:

• 30gr butter or vegetable spread (not oil!)

• 2 tbsp dried sage

• Freshly ground black pepper

• Grated parmisan

• Parmisan flakes

Method:

TIP: Yes, we'll start with a tip! Homemade gnocchi will breakdown during cooking when either of these happen:

• The potatoes are too humid

• You add too much flour

• You work the dough too much

The last two are easily avoided, but for the first one there is a trick: pick old potatoes if possible (avoid baby ones or the new crop), and choose either of these methods to cook:

• Whole, in their skin (washed) boiling in plenty of salted water - then peel them as hot as possible but without burning yourself

• Skinned and in pieces but in the microwave, covered with a perforated lid (or cling film with plety of holes)

TIP: When to use the egg yolk? Well, although the pure gnocchi are without eggs, if the potatoes are too humid, adding the egg yolk helps a lot during cooking and will prevent them going too soft and breaking up

So let's start, it's a lot easier than you think:

• Cook the potatoes, then drain well if boiling and mash them well as soon as possible (if you have a potato ricer it's even better)

• Once mashed wait until they become just cool enough to handle with bare hands and they release some of the steam

TIP: This recipe works well only if you are working with very warm potatoes

• Put the mashed potatoes on your table, add the salt and the egg yolk if using, mix a little

• Add gradually the flour and start mixing the dough.

TIP: It is important to add the flour a little bit at a time and stop adding flour (quantities for the flour do change according to the age and wetness of the potatoes).

• Do not overwork the dough: stop as soon as it's smooth and doesn't crumble any longer (2-3 mins)

• Wrap tightly the dough in tinfoil to keep it warm and wet

• Spread some semolina on the table

• Cut out a thick slice of dough and start working it onto the table giving it the shape of a narrow (1cm) cilinder

• Make sure to roll the cilinder well into the semolina

• Cut the cilinder in 1cm pieces, then shape them to obtain the classic oblong shape, lightly mixing them with semolina (shake off the excess)

• Now you have the choice to leave the gnocchi as they are, per the main picture above, or to make the classic ridges and shape by using a "rigagnocchi" (a ridged board used for gnocchi)

• If you use that, just take a shaped piece, run it lightly over the board from the top down with your finger making an imprint on the side were no ridges will be created.

• Keep making the gnocchi, one little cilinder at a time, and always keep the rest of the dough wrapped in tinfoil

TIP: Now it's not the time to take a break, the dough must be quite warm when you work it, so don't leave it time to cool down

TIP: Gnocchi cannot wait, you either cook them straight away, or you freeze them and then cook them from frozen. If you are freezing them, put them on a chopping board in the freezer until hardened, then bag them

Cooking:

• First of all ensure your sauce is ready and at hand

• Bring plenty of salted water to the boil and put all your gnocchi into your pot

• Homemade gnocchi cook extremely quickly: be ready with a slotted spoon and drain them from the water as soon as they come to the surface, and put them into your sauce pot

• Continue to drain them all with the slotted spoon, then mix delicately in your sauce pot and serve

Sauces:

Butter and Sage (a classic with gnocchi):

• Melt the butter with the sage over medium heat

• Let it cook 2-3 mins but don't let it brown

• Cook the gnocchi in batches in salty boiling water

TIP: they're ready as soon as they come to the surface (1-2 mins), so drain them using a perforated ladle and set aside with some sauce while you cook the next batch

• Mix delicately with grated parmisan and a little black pepper

• Serve scattering the bowls with parmisan flakes

There are a lot of other sauces you can use with gnocchi, but absolutely do not use the bolognese sauce. Here are some ideas:

• Cream of asparagus

• Cream of artichokes

• Mixed nuts pesto

• Walnut and cheese cream

• Courgette pesto

• Simple tomato sauce

• Pesto alla genovese (the tipical green one)