Potato Gnocchi 101 With Julia, Sandra & Nicole (And Gina Showed Up Just In Time For Dinner)

There are lots of types of gnocchi, another one of those ubiquitous Italian hunger killers; made, for instance, from taters, bread, ricotta or semolina, with names like canederli, gnoche and pisarei (means little penises).  They are loosely considered pasta, being made mostly with carbs and dressed with sauces, but the variations comprise their own genre really.

One of the first things in our lesson was to get Jules and Sand pronouncing them correctly...nyoke-o (singular) or nyoke-ee (plural).  Saying it wrong is nothing to be embarrassed about; I've been mispronouncing Jojoba for a year or so now, for instance.  

A lot of potato gnocchi are dense, heavy-in-the-stomach pellets of dough with not that much discernible potato.  Usually that means the preparer has continued adding flour to the dough during kneading and forming because they're worried about the structural integrity and their ability to stand up to boiling water.

A good potato gnocco though should be light and tender so that when you put it in your mouth you need not push it to your molars to chew, but rather press it against the top of your mouth with your tongue so that it disintegrates, allowing you to really taste the potato and feel its starchiness on your tongue.  That's what my wife said.  

The best advice I've gotten on potato gnocchi was from a Piedmontese chef in Italy who told me to peel and rice the potatoes as soon as possible without burning yourself, spreading them out in an even layer on a work surface.  This allows maximum steam to be released, drying them out, which in turn means less flour will be needed to make the dough come together because of the lower water content.  The rule will also work for sweet potatoes or squash if those are the bases you're using.    

A nice and easy thing about most gnocchi too is that, unlike flour pastas, there's very little muscle needed for kneading and forming the dough .  Making and cooking the shapes is a quick process, especially with a couple bodies.  Sure, it may take time to get the proper technique for a bella figura, but as long as it floats, it's good eating.

Potato gnocchi often have ridges for holding on to sauce, courtesy of a special wooden board, but the tines of a fork work well too.  Julia and Sandra had a little trouble at first rolling the dough off their thumbs, but with some well floured hands and some time they got it...then the 3 bottles of Prosecco kicked in and the learning curve flattened out.  

You can form a first batch and boil them to test their integrity...if they hold up and come afloating after a couple minutes, they're good to go.  If not, add flour little by little to firm them up slightly, but don't go overboard.  A basic tomato sauce is a good accompaniment, slightly sweet and acidic, or butter and olive oil with grated cheese for a quicker, simpler alternative.

For our lesson/dinner I wanted something substantial though, a one dish meal kind of thing, so I made a beef brisket meat sauce as you can see.  It had a kind of stracotto (well cooked in Italian, their version of pot roast) aspect to it, with a base of tomato and some red wine, the meat shredded and chopped into tasty morsels.

Is it the prosecco or the thought of boiled potatoes?

Serves 6

For the Gnocchi Dough:
3 lbs. potatoes (Idaho, Russet, Yukons will all work)
2 eggs
1 1/2  to 2 cups all purpose flour
A couple pinches of salt

For the Meat Sauce:
1 2 1/2 to 3 lb. beef brisket, cut into 4 or 5 pieces
2 onions, finely diced
3 cloves garlic, finely diced
1 bay leaf
4 cloves (the spice)
1 cup dry red wine
1 32 oz. can San Marzano Tomatoes, pureed
1/2 tube of tomato paste
1 to 2 cups low sodium beef broth
Extra Virgin Olive Oil
Salt and Pepper to taste
Parmigiano Reggiano

Make the meat sauce a day or several hours in advance.  Salt and pepper the chunks of meat aggressively on both sides, leaving the layer of fat on the top of the brisket intact.

In a dutch oven heat a tablespoon or so of olive oil on medium heat, and when shimmering, add the beef, being mindful not to overcrowd the pan.  Let the beef seer several minutes until golden brown, then flip and do the same for the other side.  Remove to a platter and set aside.

When all the beef is seared, add the onions to the pan and deglaze to pick up all the brown bits.  Reduce the heat to medium low to sweat the onions and prevent browning, adding the garlic at this point.

Cook for 5 to 10 minutes, then add the cloves and bay leaf, and turn the heat to medium high, cooking another 2 minutes.

Add the wine and let it cook until almost evaporated, further deglazing if need be.  Add the tomato paste and let it cook 2 minutes until it turns a rusty color.

Add the beef broth and then tomatoes and bring to a boil, add the meat back and lower the heat to a simmer.  Cover and cook for 3 to 4 hours, flipping the meat a couple times and stirring occasionally, until the beef is very tender and pulls apart easily.

Remove the meat from the pot, discarding the layer of fat.  When cool enough to handle, chop into small, bite-sized pieces, small enough to dress the gnocchi properly.

Return the meat to the pot and cook another 15 to 20 minutes to meld the flavors, then season to taste with salt and pepper and turn off the heat.

To make the gnocchi, put the potatoes in a large pot in one pretty even layer, and cover by a couple inches with water.  Bring to a boil and cook another 20 to 30 minutes until the potatoes are easily pierced with a knife.  Drain and as soon as possible peel the skin and pass them through a ricer onto a work surface, spreading them out as much as possible.  Alternatively, you can use a potato masher, but a ricer is ideal for texture.

Once the potatoes have cooled so there is no visible steam coming off, add the eggs, flour and salt to the potatoes and bring together into a ball, then begin kneading it gently like bread or pasta dough.  Do this until it's cohesive and the ingredients are evenly distributed.  Take a hunk out of the dough and roll it into a long cylinder, about 1 inch in diameter.  Cut off pieces every inch or so and flour them lightly.

Bring a large pot of water to a boil and salt it abundantly.

Using a gnocchi board or a fork, take the inside corner of your thumb and press down gently on the back edge of the dough, then drag it, rolling the dough over until it rolls off the fork.  It should be about a half rotation for the gnocco.  This should leave a dimple on the back end of the gnocco from your thumb, and ridges on the front end from the fork.  Don't press down too hard and crush the dough; just put enough pressure to grab hold and pull it along while impressing the fork on the bottom edge.

Cook a batch of the gnocchi in the boiling water until they float to the surface, 2 to 3 minutes, stirring gently 20 seconds after putting them in.  If they disintegrate in the water add a bit more flour to the dough.  Drain and serve dressed with the meat sauce, garnished with Parmigiano Reggiano.

You can also cook the gnocchi in batches as they're formed, draining them and putting them in a baking dish with enough of the meat sauce to coat.  At this point the gnocchi can't really overcook, and the time sitting in the meat sauce will allow them to absorb the flavor of the sauce to good effect.  Keep the baking dish in the oven on warm until finished.    

I'm available nights and weekends for lessons!