Mashed potato is one of my favourite foods on the planet, it’s up there with chocolate and green curry so it goes without saying that gnocchi is going to be up there at the top of my food charts – because it’s made with mashed potato. This is a fabulous dish and pretty unusual as it communicates with you and tells you when it’s cooked – very clever this gnocchi. It’s great to use up mashed potato or make more mash than you need thinking ahead to the next day’s supper and you’re half way to making it. Serve it with fresh sage and butter, gorgonzola sauce (a favourite of mine), lovely roast cherry tomato sauce or just butter, black pepper and parmesan, it’s a comfort food, it’s not meant to be healthy.
Here’s what you’ll need:
Ingredients: gnocchi for 4 people
500g old potatoes, peeled and chopped
200g plain flour
1 egg
salt and pepper
How to make gnocchi
- Boil the potatoes for 10-15 minutes until soft, drain and mash really smoothly, preferably using a potato ricer. If you leave them to steam in the colander for 10 minutes before ricing them it will help to dry them out and give you lighter gnocchi.
- Add the flour, egg and seasoning and mix to form a firm dough. Knead the dough for 1-2 minutes and roll out into a sausage shape approx 1cm thick. Cut into 2.5cm pieces, gently squash them with a fork to make nice indentations. Transfer to a floured baking tray while you carry on with the rest.
- Bring a large pan of water to the boil, carefully drop in the gnocchi and cook them for 1-2 minutes until the rise to the surface (you see, I told they were clever and told you when they were cooked). Scoop them out and serve with the tomato sauce, or sprinkle with parmesan cheese and black pepper and eat with a lovely big salad.
Basil Gnocchi
Add a tablespoon of finely chopped basil to the gnocchi at step 2 when you add the flour and egg.
