How to Make Gnocchi

Potato gnocchi

Potato gnocchi are an Italian typical dish, having several local varieties. The origins of this dish can be traced back to very ancient times, even to the Roman period, when they were prepared with a cereal flour mixture boiled in some water. Later, such a preparation turned into a paste made of stale bread, flour and water; then it was prepared with flour and water solely, and during the last century, potatoes were added too.

During Lombard Renaissance banquets: they were prepared by mixing bread crumb, milk and grinded almonds and they were called "zanzarelli". This recipe had several variants depending on the ingredients which were added. In the 17th century the malfatti appeared: instead of almonds they were prepared with flour, water and eggs. Potato gnocchi spread from 1880, thanks to the first potato imports from America.

Types of Gnocchi

Nowadays the most common gnocchi in Italy are prepared with potatoes, mixing some flour with boiled pressed potatoes and then boiling the whole mixture for some minutes. Once they are cooked you can season and taste them as you like. In the preparation of gnocchi other ingredients may added too, such as butter, milk, eggs, herbs, spinachs and ricotta. The quality of ingredients directly affects this dish's tastiness. Particularly, potatoes should be floury (rich in starch) and not solid. The Gnocchi size can vary. For example, gnocchetti are the miniature variant of their more famous cousins.

Fresh, ready to cook gnocchi

Therefore, preparing homemade gnocchi is an art which feels the effects of several local and family traditions.

Roman gnocchi: semolina, milk, eggs and butter

Spinach and ricotta gnocchi: flour, spinach, butter, eggs, ricotta, spices

Pumpkin gnocchi: pumpkin, flour, eggs, butter, spices

After mixing all the ingredients carefully, the paste can be cooked. In most cases gnocchi are cooked the way pasta is but, unlike it, their cooking time is definitely shorter. In fact, just after a few minutes, they begin floating in the hot water, which is the unmistakable indication their cooking is over.

When buying any food, including gnocchi, you ought to read labels carefully. In fact they show some precious information about the quality of foods. For example, if there is the label "potato gnocchi" that indicates these tubers really are the main ingredient; on the contrary, if there is the label "gnocchi with potato" flour is more likely to be  the main ingredient. Generally the more potatoes are added the tastier and finer gnocchi are.

Anyway, the consumer should bear in mind that the ingredients in a label are not listed accidentally but they are regulated according to the law. Particularly, the various ingredients must be listed in a quality decreasing order. Therefore, the quantity of the first ingredient in the list is bigger than the second one which, in its turn, is bigger than the third one and so on.

If prepared according to the traditional recipe, gnocchi are a lower caloric dish than rice and pasta. A more elaborate preparation, such as the industrial one, is riskier, both in a strictly caloric and healthy way. In fact, it often occurs to find out some foods are enriched with hydrogenated fats and/or margarine.

Gnocchi in tomato sauce

Gnocchi Recipe

The secret of the preparation of really tasty gnocchi is the choice of potatoes and their cooking. To obtain a firm, but not solid, gnocchi paste where the flour taste does not contaminate the potatoes', potatoes need to be dehydrated. In fact, the more they are watery, the more flour you need to add in order to get a workable  paste, but the more gnocchi will be solid and flour tasting.
In order to dehydrate potatoes (which should be white-pasted, or anyway floury, they need to be boiled together with their skin, peeled while hot (under running water not to burn oneself) and press them while they are still hot to make them exhale while cooling. If you like, once you have pressed and put them in a baking tin you can cook them in the oven (100 degrees for thirty minutes), to get them more dehydrated.

Ingredients to Prepare Gnocchi:

600 g of potatoes
150 g of low gluten content flour (used to prepare puff pastry or cakes)
salt

Preparation of Gnocchi

After coking and peeling potatoes and, at any rate, dehydrating them in the oven, slowly add some flour until the paste is dry and workable (you might need to add a little more or a little less flour than expected). Make some ten cm cylinders, cut them into 3 to 5 cm slices, as you like, finally, optional operation, you can roll them on the prongs of a fork so as to give them the classic gnocchi rifling.