Gnocchi!

It’s a fun sounding word, i think the best description i’ve heard of it is a potato dumpling though you can fry them.

Before having ever made them i always thought it would seem like a daunting task but they’re really pretty simple.

Recipe!

Ingredients (makes plenty)

• Potatoes, preferably floury ones like King Edward, Estima, Maris Piper or Desiree.
• Plain flour

Prep and cooking (35-45 minutes)

1. Start by getting the potatoes on to boil, you don’t need to peel or chop them just leave them whole and boil on a high temperature for around 20-30 minutes until they are cooked all the way through, they might start to break apart but thats fine.
2. When the potatoes are cooked pour out as much of the water as you can then run them under a cold tap (in the pan) until they are cool enough to handle.
3. Remove the skins and put the whole potatoes back into the pan.
4. Now mash the potato with a masher or potato ricer.
5. Next to add the flour, a lot of it’s down to personal taste but i’d say about 300g of flour per 1kg of potato is a good starting point, the more you use the more texture it will have but will mask the potato flavour more, too little won’t hold them together enough and it’s nice to have a little bite.
6. Mix the flour and potato well, flour a work surface and gently knead it for 3-4 minutes, add more flour if it gets too sticky.
7. Roll out sausages and cut 1-2cm pieces, how big or small is upto you but if you make them too big the outside will turn to mush or burn before the inside is so don’t make them crazy big, if you score them lightly with a fork then sauce (or butter) will hold better when cooked.
8. To cook you can either boil of fry them, to boil just get a pan of salted water on the boil and add 10-15 pieces, or enough so that they don’t sit on top of each other in the pan and let them boil for 2-3 minutes, as soon as they rise to the top they are ready.
9. To fry simply heat some oil or butter over a medium high heat until you have a nice colour on them, you may need a little extra flour in the mix if frying.
10. Cover with sauce, or just melted butter, salt and pepper.
11. Good stuff.

More recipes soon!