Updated April 28, 2011 My favorite meal was in Cinque Terre, which is along Northern Italy’s Rivera coast. After a long day of hiking, we settled down at a fine restaurant. We had a table outside with a lovely view. With my brother’s assistance, I ordered homemade gnocchi with pesto. The little potato dumplings were fresh and oh so tasty. I had the perfect meal, in the perfect place. Ever since then, I have had a longing for good gnocchi, but it is hard to find. The store bought stuff doesn’t do it justice. Since we are newlyweds and can’t afford to travel to Italy every week to eat gnocchi…we decided to make it ourselves. How hard could it be, potatoes, flour, salt??? We purchased a potato ricer for this cooking adventure. You want to make sure the potatoes are really smooth!! You don’t want chunks in your gnocchi! The recipe is basic, but getting the right combination of flour and potatoes is the tricky part. You don’t want the gnocchi to be mushy, but you don’t want them to be dry and tough either. We rolled out one rope and tested the gnocchi. I recommend doing this. Ours were mushy at first so we had to add more flour. Once you get the right consistency you can roll out the rest of the ropes and cut away! It was fun! We did the traditional “fork” trick so they would look authentic:) It only took a couple of minutes to boil them. We served the gnocchi with a roasted pepper sauce. So good!! All said and done, I was impressed with our first gnocchi adventure. Of course, it didn’t beat my meal in Italy, but I don’t know if I can ever top that one!! We will be making these again…and again!
Homemade Gnocchi 2 pounds Russet potatoes 1 ½ cups flour (you might need more, add it slowly though) 1 ½ teaspoons salt (or to your taste) Wash potatoes and place them in a large pot of boiling water. I salted the water. Boil until tender, about 45 minutes. When soft remove them from the water and let cool.
