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Written by Reuben Riffel shares a very easy Gnocchi Recipe with you and throws in a little history about the origin of gnocchi at the same time.
Gnocchi is a traditional Italian dish but it’s origins lie in the Middle East from where the Romans imported it into present day Italy.
A potato gnocchi recipe requires only three simple ingredients, potatoes, flour and eggs. Mix them all together, knead into a dough and cut up into smaller pieces.
From there you only need to boil them in some salted water until they float and they are ready.
Use about one large potato per person and if this is the first time that you are making them, cut the gnocchi dough into small pieces, it will be easier to get the cooking right and have your sauce ready so once the gnocchi are done you can mix them with the sauce immediately.
If you want to freeze your gnocchi, lay them out individually in an airtight container, layered with some baking paper, freeze them and once frozen bag them. This method of freezing individually will prevent them from sticking together.
| Potatoes | 600 | g | |
| Flour | 300 | g | |
| Egg Yolks | 2 |
1 . Boil the potatoes in salted water
2 . Remove the peel and mash the potato
3 . Add the flour and egg yolks
4 . Knead into a dough
5 . Cut into 4 pieces
6 . Roll each piece into a long snake
7 . Cut into smaller pieces (2-3cm)
8 . Mark each piece with a fork
Cooking:
1 . Bring salted water to the boil
2 . Add the gnocchi pieces
3 . When the gnocchi floats, it’s ready.
4 . Serve with your favourite sauce, Reuben Riffel likes his with Gorgonzola
A little wiki about Gnocchi
Gnocchi, pronounced “noki”, are various thick, soft dumplings. They may be made from semolina,ordinary wheat flour, flour and egg, flour, egg, and cheese, potato, breadcrumbs,or similar ingredients.
Like many Italian dishes, there is considerable variation in recipes and names across different regions. For example, the Tuscan malfatti are a sort of flour, ricotta, and spinach gnocchi; the Pugliese cavatielliare flour-based, and so on.
Gnocchi are eaten as a first course (primi piatti), alternatives to soups (minestre), or pasta. They are generally home-made in Italian and diaspora Italian households. They may also be bought fresh from speciality stores. In supermarkets, industrially-produced packaged gnocchi are widely available refrigerated, dried, or frozen. Common accompaniments of gnocchi include tomato sauces, pesto, and melted butter (sometimes fried butter) with cheese.
The word gnocchi may derive from the Italian word nocchio, meaning a knot in wood,or from nocca(meaning knuckle).It has been a traditional Italian pasta type of probably Middle Eastern origin since Roman times.It was introduced by the Roman legions during the enormous expansion of the empire into the countries of the European continent. In the past 2,000 years, each country developed its own specific type of small dumplings, with the ancient gnocchi as their common ancestor. In Roman times,gnocchi were made from a semolina porridge-like dough mixed with eggs, and are still found in similar forms today, particularly the oven-baked gnocchi alla romana and Sardinia’s malloreddus (although these do not contain eggs).
The use of potato is a relatively recent innovation, occurring after the introduction of the potato to Europe in the 16th century. Potato gnocchi are particularly popular in Abruzzo, Friuli-Venezia Giulia, Veneto, Ciociaria and other provinces of Latium; they are best prepared with red potatoes.
