Darkstream
Senior Cook
- Joined
- Sep 7, 2004
- Messages
- 287
These dumplings are exteremely difficult to get right. It is one of the few dishes in Italian cuisine which regularly turns out to be quite dreadful, and they can be almost as indegestible as the worst Teutonic or Anglo-Saxon stomach ordnance such as Norfolk Dumplings or steak and kidney pudding, although the smaller caliber of gnocchi and the lack of beef suet gives them somewhat reduced armour piercing capabilities in comparison. It seems strange that of all the many wonderful dishes from Austro-Hungarian cuisine that could have been taken by the northern Italians, they chose this one. Or was it thrust upon them?
For the sake of completeness, I give an original recipe from Ada Boni:
POTATO GNOCCHI
4 1/2 lbs of floury potatos
salt
7 ounces of plain flour
2 egg yolks
Do not peel the potatoes, boil in salted water till soft, peel and mash. Add flour, and
salt to taste, add the eggs and mix to a firm dough.
Break the dough into pieces and form a sausage the thickness of your finger.
Cut to about one inch long.
Press on a grater to make a pattern on the gnocchi [it is supposed to help retain the
sauce].
Leave them to dry.
Bring a pan of water to the boil and cook them a few at a time. They are done when
they rise to the surface. Remove with a slotted spoon. Dress with melted butter and
parmesan and serve fresh, or cover with a sauce and bake for 1/2 hour.
WARNING! The most likely outcome of this recipe will be tough, dough like bullets
of supreme indigestability. I have attempted this recipe a number of times over the
years, and it has reliably failed to produce anything worth eating on every occasion.
THIS RECIPE IS ONLY FOR THE BRAVE OR FOOLHARDY.
However, you like me, may have at some time had gnocchi that were light and
savoury, and thus be aware that it IS possible to make a tasty dish from them.
It is at times like these that I cheat unresevedly and with great determination.
The secret is not to make gnocchi at all.
I use the recipe given by Beck, Bertholle and Child which is basically to stir dry
potato puree into a choux paste.
First the choux paste:
8 fl oz of water
1 1/2 ounces of butter
a little salt and pepper (and nutmeg)
1 3/4 ounces of flour
2 eggs
Bring the water to the boil, add in the seasoning and butter, melt the butter.
Remove from the heat and pour all the flour in at once, beat vigorously with a
wooden spoon and return to the heat and continue for about two minutes to cook the
flour, until the mix leaves the sides of the pan and forms a mass, beggining to film the
bottom of the pan. Remove from heat and beat in the eggs one by one. (I stick electric
beaters directly into the pan).
When it is all smooth, cover with saran wrap/cling film to prevent a skin forming.
1 lb of potatos
Now DO NOT BOIL the potatos. If you do, you WILL get wet potatos, which will
need more flour, which will toughen the dough, which will..........you get the picture.
MICROWAVE the potatos until done. They will be as dry as you can hope to achieve
done this way. Rice the potatoes and if neccessary put them in a pan and dry them out
a bit more. Mash them smooth without any additional liquid or butter. When you have
a smooth dry compostion, beat it into the choux paste and add some parmesan.
Now roll this out into sausages.
Cut off pieces and to make a pattern on them roll them on a large comb or press them
with a fork.
You do NOT need to buy one of these
I cannot be bothered with all of that, so I just drag the tines of a fork down the length
of the sausage and THEN cut it up. But do as you like.
To cook them, SIMMER them in salted water and drain.
You can serve with butter and sage, cheese, cream&peas&ham, pesto, or bake with
fontina, tomato sauce, sugo, the veal sauce.
This confection should be quite digestible.
But I rarely make it, it is a LOT of effort, particularly when I can make fresh pasta in
the time it takes for the water to boil.
But for those who enjoy punishment:
SPINACH GNOCCHI
Substitiute the potato with 1/2 pound of chopped cooked spinach and 6 ounces of
drained ricotta. IGNORE the traditional ways of making this and use my recipe using
choux paste.
CHEESE GNOCCHI
Substitute the potato with ricotta and some parmesan, or with up to 4 cheeses.
PUMPKIN GNOCCHI
Substitue butternut or similar type squash. Note that Italian squashes tend to be
sweeter than US ones. Add a little brown sugar , or ratafia if you can afford it.
ALTERNATIVELY, you can make them with sweet potato.
HEALTHY GNOCCHI
Substitute 1/2 the white flour with wholemeal. Make with the sweet potato for a
complex carbohydrate dish.
