Pillow Feast Anyone?

So I’d always wanted to make potato gnocchi. Finally one special day there was possibility of it becoming reality. It was a sunny day much like today with birds chirping… okay just kidding.

I was shown how to make these in a cooking class I took but never actually got to try it by myself. What I thought might be quite the adventure actually ended up being rather simple.

Okay start over… I DID try making potato gnocchi many moons ago, so I lied just now, and I ended up with a heap of mess by the end of it; foot ball sized flour blobs and a bit of intimidation was the result but the boyfriend was nice enough to “enjoy” them anyway, that’s why this next time would be an adventure. THEN I took the cooking class a year or two later… and THEN I found out the proper way to do it, and Voila! Success.

The first time around I thought  “what the hell is a Food Mill” which is what the recipe called for using so after looking up what a Food Mill does I figured “okay don’t have one of those thinga-ma-jiggs, buuuuuuut I got a cheese grater maybe that would work!” THREE HOURS And SORE FINGERS LATER I ended up with a pile of potato shavings. I did notice something neat though: when you “Mash” a potato it becomes a cloud-like pile of fluff; when you “Salad” a potato it becomes a different chunky, pasty, pile of fluff; and when you “cheese grate” a potato it becomes a thirdly different boingy pile of fluff. Interesting. “Wow, so you can take a hard-as-a-rock potato and make it into dough like you would with flour, I guess there’s those delicious potato bread rolls, so that makes sense. Double neat!”

Okay back to my revelations. After not knowing what the dough was supposed to feel like, and boiling waaaaaay too long and making waaaaay too many this debacle was the first attempt. Yikes. But then there was the cooking class. Ah yes the glorious Pasta Making cooking class where learning was abound and dreams do come true. One of those handmade pastas was the gnocchi and I was shown the RIGHT way to do it.

(This made enough for me to have two decent sized portions about 30 + each batch)

What you need:

3 medium sized Russet Potatoes, 1 large egg, veggie oil, All purpose flour, nutmeg, salt / Potato RICER (you can get these pretty much anywhere now), Large Bowl, Knife, Fork, 2 baking sheets, parchment paper

Take your Taters and wash all the dirt off. Stab them with a fork, then take some veg oil and rub-a-dub dub, stick in a pan, or foil, or whatever to bake (we’re making baked potatoes)

Any good baked potato gets about I’d say a good hour and a half in the oven. Remove and let cool down enough to handle.

In the large bowl mix 1 cup of flour with a pinch of salt and a pinch of nutmeg (don’t overdo the nutmeg), set aside

Also in the meantime line two (baking sheets, pans whatever) with parchment paper and lightly dust with flour, also set aside.

Cut your Purtaters in half or maybe three whatever fits in your Ricer. Lightly flour a kneading surface, and while they are still warm RICE ‘em. This should make a giant pile of potato fluff removing the skins at the same time; you will notice after the shavings add up that it’s light to the touch and bounces back a little. From here you want to take your fingers and make a little well in the pile this is where you’ll pour in your flour mix, and that large egg we mentioned in the list.

Mix the pile together lightly until it makes a ball (so you don’t make a mess with the egg) and then when it’s together knead with your hand a couple times till it’s all incorporated. Don’t worry, it’s supposed to be sticky… you are welcome to sprinkle to help with the kneading but don’t second guess yourself, too much flour here will make those footballs I told you about earlier.

Now that you have your fun ball of dough cut it into 8 pieces. Take each piece separately and roll out into a long log about the diameter of a nickel. Now cut off bit by bit, little inch pieces, until the log is no more. They should look like little pillows. Take the fork and, lightly floured, press into the little pillow to make grooves. This is not only adorable it’s actually also a way to pick up more sauce with each bite. Awesome right? As you fork indent each one lay them out on the flour dusted pan/sheet making sure no part of them is touching.

At this point you say to yourself “what am I going to do with all these fancy little gnocchi?” Well you have many options, you can:

A)   Feed them to the Gorilla aka my boyfriend

B)   You can throw a party for “National Grandparents Day” It’s a real holiday, I swear, look it up. Or,

C)   You can take half to eat now and freeze the other half for a second occasion.

Here’s how. Take one of those pans of gnocchi and cover it with more parchment paper over the top. Stick it in the freezer, double checking to make sure that none are touching. When they are frozen take them out and store in a freezer bag. Now they can go back into the freezer. This will ensure that you don’t end up with a block of gnocchi thawing out into a blob, and doubly! now you will be able to eat them in whatever amount you like.

Freshly made gnocchi maybe takes a minute to boil. Do them a few at a time to again prevent sticking. You know they are done when they float to the top. When frozen no thawing is necessary you still just chuck them into the pot, they’ll just take a little longer to float to the top, maybe more like 3 minutes instead of 1.

You are welcome to make any sauce you like to accompany these and traditionally you make a red sauce. But! I was in the mood for a cream sauce so I made a sauce with fresh cream, sage, parmesan, and porcini mushrooms. This takes like two seconds to put together having already hydrated your mushrooms if they are dried. (to hydrate dried mushrooms you can use water or stock, bring to a boil, turn off heat, dump them in, let sit for 20 minutes. After this they will be soft but you need to strain off any grit before chopping and putting in with your sauce)

You’ll need:

¼ cup of heavy cream

¼ cup milk

4 to 8 whole sage leaves

1 stick of butter (sometimes I feel guilty and use only half)

And just a few Porcini dried or fresh. *if you use fresh ones the flavor will be milder.

First, put the butter in the pan to melt and NOT BURN (changes the flavor). Add your milk, cream, and sage leaves. Now add another ¼ of water. Bring this to a low rolling boil for about 3 minutes. Turn off the fire, remove the sage leaves, and put in your mushroom bits. Keep the sauce in the warm pan while you boil up the gnocchi and add them to the sauce as they float to the top of your pasta water. Plate and sprinkle fresh grated parmesan on top!

Please note: Potato gnocchi with this sauce in particular is very rich! They can be served as an appetizer instead if you wish. Also, don’t be afraid to try other sauces. Eat up! (uh despite the beautifully chipped bowl, presentation may not be my forte, haha...mmm)