Potato gnocchi with tomato sauce (a.k.a. Gnocchi con il sugo di pomodoro)

Preparation: 45 mins
Cooking: 2-3 mins
    
Difficulty: Medium
    
Vegetarian

This is where simplicity and inexpensive Ingredients meet up and they are transformed in a delicious final dish. In our family, in Italy , gnocchi was “the usual” for the Sunday lunch during wintertime. I remember that when I was a boy, I always was used to steal some gnocchi from the preparation board and to eat them raw before being boiled which met with great disapproval from my mum. Gnocchi is a very versatile dish, like spaghetti, and can be accompanied by many different sauces despite the purists, who want them only with tomato sauce. Try gnocchi with Pesto sauce or Ragù di carne thus giving you a broader choice for your guests.

SERVES 4

Ingredients:

For making ghocchi: 

• 800 g (1 ¾ lb) Old floury potatoes
• 200 g (7 oz) White flour (Italian “00” flour or equivalent) but keep some extra flour for the work surface (I use a large wooden board)
• 1 Egg (medium size)
• Salt for the boiling water

For the topping:

• Tomato sauce
• Few basil leaves
• Freshly grated Parmesan cheese

Note: 200 g of flour is what we should use with the amount of potatoes I used in the list. However, there are many different type of potatoes on the market and every type will absorb varying amounts of flour. Do not be surprised if sometimes you will end up using 250g or 300 g of flour, but as rule of thumb you should try to use the minimum amount of flour possible in order to keep the gnocchi lighter.

Directions:

Put the unpeeled potatoes into a pan of cold water (slightly salted) and boil them for 20-25 minutes or until tender. Potatoes should be roughly of the same size so that the boiling time is the same for them all.

Generally speaking, the potatoes should be ready when the skin starts showing some cracks. Try to prick the potatoes with a fork and if you do not find any resistance, then the potatoes are ready for the next stage.

Drain the potatoes and put them onto a kitchen towel or whatever is practical for you.

Peel the potatoes. It is quite easy to remove the skin without being burned.

Now it’s time for mashing. If you are a bit traditionalist, I bet you prefer to use a classic potato masher instead of fancy tools!

When mashing, do this fairly quickly because the potatoes need to be warm for the next stage.

Spread some flour onto the work surface to avoid the mashed potato sticking to it.

Put all your mashed potatoes onto the work surface.

Put the egg into a small bowl and whisk it for few seconds. We are not going to add the whole egg into the potato mixture otherwise the mixture will be too wet and will require too much extra flour to complete the dough (excessive flour will make the gnocchi firmer and heavier to digest!). Better to have the egg in a bowl and to add what we need, taking, initially, just a couple of spoonfuls of it.

Add half of the flour and mix with your hand.

Then, as I said before, add just a couple of spoonfuls of egg and add the rest of the flour.

Knead the mixture for 5-7 minutes and if you think it is too dry, then you can add an extra spoonful of egg to bring the dough to the right consistency.

The final dough should be smooth and elastic (not sticky).

Cut the dough in 4-5 pieces as shown in the picture.

With every piece you have cut, make a ball.

Now, pressing and rolling the ball onto the surface (you need some extra flour for the work surface but just enough for what you need otherwise the ball will absorb too much flour), make a long sausage-like strip.

The sausage should be about as thicker as your thumb.

When the long sausage is ready, it’s time to cut it.

Cut the sausage in about 2 ½ cm ( 1”) long pieces.

The cut pieces should be laid onto the floured work surface and separated.

Take the small pieces and make a ball with them.

The gnocchi are then ready to be boiled. Normally, I boil the gnocchi straightaway but if you want to do that later (after few hours), separate them onto a floured cardboard tray and put them in the fridge.

Rolling the gnocchi onto the fork prongs will make grooves on their surface. This is a good way to retain more sauce around their surface. If you want to do a top job, I suggest you use a grooving board specifically made for this purpose.

Gnocchi with grooves.

Take a large pan of salted water and bring to boil (the same as you do with spaghetti). When the water is boiling, put the gnocchi into it and wait!

The gnocchi will be cooked when it start floating (it should take a couple of minutes). Leave them to float for a further 30 seconds.

Take them out with a slotted spoon and put them quickly into the saucepan containing the tomato sauce (this has to be hot).

To do this, you should have prepared the tomato sauce before and kept it ready for this final stage.

Also. You should have washed few leaves of fresh basil and patted dry with kitchen paper.

Gently toss the gnocchi in the saucepan for about 20-30 seconds and add the basil leaves. Serve it immediately.

Sprinkle with freshly grated Parmesan cheese and Buon appetito!

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