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Gno-You-Didn't: The Ultimate Gnocchi Recipe (for vegans, too)
The Web site for the award-winning alternative weekly, the Philadelphia City Paper.
Gno-You-Didn't: The Ultimate Gnocchi Recipe (for vegans, too)
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| Photo l Michael Persico |
| Homemade gnocchi with pesto, spinach and Parmigiano |
Eating a bowl of fluffy gnocchi, simply sauced with pesto or sage in brown butter,� is the equivalent of falling into a soft feather bed.� Easy to do and easy to enjoy, but to actually make that feather bed you've got to kill a whole lot of geese and get pretty messy.� The analogous pitfalls and time requirements of hand-making pasta has kept me from attempting those feathery pillows until now, when I went on the hunt for the Ultimate Gnocchi Recipe.� Prescriptions for perfect pasta abound on the Web; the Food Network came up high offering versions from Emeril Lagasse (who starts with mashed potatoes) and Mario Batali (who has you par-cook the things and hold them in oil until service). �� Further research turned up dozens of other, slightly less corporate sources.
The first method that stood out came from Anna Maria Volpi, a native of Italy who provides step-by-step instructions (with photos) for classic Gnocchi Patate.� Her version is as traditional as it gets, boiling the potatoes in their skins and incorporating only flour and salt into the dough (the egg is optional) to create a super-light and incidentally vegan dumpling.
Executing Volpi's recipe resulted in puffed, airy dumplings that came at the expense of a difficut-to-work, crumbly dough.� These boiled potato, egg-free vegan gnocchi worked best when cut into� 1" pieces from a 3/4" rolled dowel of dough.
The second recipe worth using originates at The Italian Dish, a blog devoted to simple recipe/photo guides to classic Italian preparations.� The Italian Dish bakes their Russet potatoes instead of boiling, mixing drier riced potatoes with eggs and flour. This egg-enriched dough held together better and was easier to work with.� The gnocchi were also stiffer and took to their saut� without tearing, without sacrificing the fluff and bite of a quality gnoccho (singluar of gnocchi).
Gnocchi made in a large batch can be frozen and used later, by placing freshly cut gnocchi on a floured cloth on a baking sheet and freezing for 20 minutes.� Partially frozen gnocchi can then be transferred to a freezer bag and stored for up to one month.� To serve, add gnocchi straight from the freezer to vigorously boiling water until they float.� Add gnocchi to saut� pan containing warmed sauce of your choice; toss to combine sauce with gnocchi.� Serve hot, immediately.
To make successful vegan, traditional gnocchi, follow Anna Maria Volpi's technique, which can be modified by using baked potatoes instead of boiled.� Bake the 2 lbs. of Russet potatoes for 65 minutes in a 400 degree Fahrenheit oven, then proceed with the recipe as usual, omitting eggs.
To make successful egg and potato gnocchi, follow The Italian Dish's recipe.� Bake 1.5 lbs. of Russet potatoes in a 400 degree Fahrenheit oven for 65 minutes, until tender to the fork.� Be cautious peeling potatoes of their skin; steam released from under the skin can burn you badly.
Vetri's gnocchi is pretty much ethereal, agree.
Vetri makes a mean gnocchi.
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