Potato Gnocchi

John and I celebrated Valentine's Day together in the kitchen cooking dinner, with some music and a great bottle of wine... much more fun than fighting the crowds at the overpriced fix prix restaurants for sure. For a special occasion, we tend to start with the wine and work backwards to the menu. In this case it was Miner 's Gibson Ranch Sangiovese from California- one of my very favorites of all time. Its hard to find but I assure you worth the hunt (or the expense of having the good people of Miner Family Vineyards mail it to your doorstep.)

From the Sangiovese we arrived at pasta, specifically a rich bolognese, and we decided homemade potato gnocchi would make for a fun and interactive Valentine's Day project.

Potato Gnocchi (recipe courtesy of Michael Chiarello)

Serves 3-4 people

2 large russet potatoes
4 eggs yolks
1/2 cup of freshly grated parmesan cheese
1/4 teaspoon of nutmeg
1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
1/4 teaspoon freshly cracked pepper
1 cup of all purpose flour (a bit more for dusting)

Scrub and dry the potatoes. Pierce the potatoes to the center 6-8 times with a pairing knife and then bake at 350 degrees for one hour. When they are cool enough to handle, cut them in half and scoop the flesh out into a bowl. Press the potato through a ricer into another bowl. (If you don't have a ricer you can pick one up at Walmart or Target for $16-$18).

Measure two heaping cups of the riced potatoes (careful not to pack the potatoes down, you want them light and fluffy) onto a large board or clean countertop dusted lightly with flour. Mound the potatoes, forming a well in the center and then add the egg yolks, cheese, salt, pepper and nutmeg to the center.


Mix the yolks into the potatoes using your fingers until everything is incorporated. Then sprinkle half a cup of the flour and press it into the potato mixture using your knuckles. Fold the dough over itself and press down again. Sprinkle more of the flour over the dough, folding and pressing until the dough looks cohesive. Resist the temptation to knead the dough like bread.

We didn't use the full cup of flour but if the dough gets too dry, you can add a splash of water. John halved the dough and rolled it into two long snake like ropes, about an inch thick.

He then cut the ropes into half inch pieces using a knife.

You could cook them just like this but rolling them down the tines of a fork gives them ridges that help the sauce hang onto the dumplings.

Once they were rolled, we placed the gnocchi in a single layer on a cookie sheet lined with a clean kitchen towel. We dusted them lightly with flour to ensure that they didn't stick together. We let them rest and dry for 30 minutes before we boiled them. The gnocchi could also be frozen after a few hours of drying as well.

Fresh gnocchi cook up in no time so once we have everything else for the meal ready, we boiled them (in two batches) in a large pot of salted water for 3 minutes or until they floated to the top of the water. Give the water a strong stir before dumping the gnocchi in- the moving water keeps them from sinking into a pile at the bottom of the pot. You don't want them to stick together. As soon as they start floating to the top, I scooped them out with a strainer into a colander in the sink.

As soon as both batches had cooked, we poured all but 1/4 cup or so of the cooking water out. We then added the gnocchi back to the pot (with the remainign cooking liquid) and spooned in a few generous scoops of fresh sauce - tossing it gently together before serving. (Topped with fresh parmesan of course.)

Fresh gnocchi would be great with a simple marinara sauce, a pesto cream sauce, or maybe gorgonzola cream sauce. I think the ticket is to keep it simple so that you can really appreicate the pasta.

I tell you these gnocchi (prepared primarily by John while I was making the sauce) were delectable- light, fluffy and flavorful. Avoiding over handling the dough ensures they are tender and fishing them out of the cooking water the very second that they float to the surface prevents them from getting mushy. AND this bowl of pasta paired perfectly with our special bottle of wine. (As did the homemade chocolate pudding! Check back soon for that recipe!)