Domenica gnocchi !
/Rainy Sundays are for gnocchi
It's pouring rain in Udine, Italy! The best weather to stay inside and make gnocchi.
I learnt how to make gnocchi with my dad. I was so small I had to stand on a stool in order to reach the kitchen worktop.
I remember I used to stand quiet at his side, with my little apron, helping him to squeeze the boiled potatoes onto a big mountain, a sort of volcano. We would then put some eggs in the “crater”, flour, muscat and I would look at his big hands (he has bear hands!) mixing the dough until it got smooth and firm enough to cut it and shape it. My hands at that time were so tiny I couldn't hold enough dough to mix, but he would give me a piece of dough to try.
We used to prepare a lot of dishes full of gnocchi like those in the picture, ready to splash in boiling water. Every time we would change the shape: big gnocchi, round gnocchi, striped gnocchi, round gnocchi with a hole in the center so that they would trap the sauce, or squared little gnocchi like these.
My father loves gnocchi with tomato sauce and a ton of Parmigiano freshly grated. He would prepare the sauce himself, with the tomato sauce of our farm, preparing a light soffritto with onions and extra virgin olive oil. The alternative would be pesto genovese ( done the right way, “not that stuff you find at the supermarket”!).
I love them soaked in pesto, so soaked that once you’re done with the gnocchi, there is still enough sauce for “la scarpetta”, literally the little shoe, that means to mop up the sauce with a piece of bread. I also love them with beurre-noisette, sage and smoked ricotta.
We have never bought ready-made gnocchi, because they are so easy to make and taste so much better that they’re not even the same product. Plus, they are incredibly light, not gummy at all and highly digestible. Every time my father makes gnocchi, he would make some additional portions that we would just put in the freezer and take out for lazy evenings or last-minute dinners ( you can splash them freezed in boiling water).
28 years later, my dad still makes gnocchi quite often, especially on Sundays, especially when he wants to tell us how much he loves us but doesn’t have words for it.
He has not only the hands of a bear, sometimes he is a bear himself, better at hiding silently in the forest - or the farm field, rather than speaking about feelings. But one day we’ll manage to tame him! ;) Gnocchi is always on the menu when I come to visit them in Italy, when everybody is home and we would have lunch all together. My brother would ironically say that having me back at home it’s like the Pope’s visiting.
Every time he makes them, I still feel like that little child on a stool, watching his bear hands make the magic with glittering eyes.
(recipe below!)
Recipe
(5 to 6 people)
- 1kg floury potatoes
- 200g flour
- 1 egg
- a pinch of muscat
- salt
Boil the potatoes, then peel them once they're still very hot and mash them with a potato masher (schiacciapatate, there's one in each italian cuisine!). Make a "mountain" with a whole in the center with the mashed potatoes, then add the beaten egg, muscat and salt, and flour. Mix them quickly until smooth. Be careful that the more you mix them, the more they will absorb the flour and become sticky, the more you'll have to add flour - which makes the gnocchi "gummy" and less digestible, so really try to mix them not for so long.
Once the dough is smooth, let it rest for 5 min. Then, sprinkle the kitchen top with flour and cut the dough in smaller parts. Roll each part like little snakes/stripes of dough, approx 3cm diameter. Cut them in small pieces (3cm x 3cm) and give them the shape you like. The best shapes can be round with a whole or striped because it keeps the sauce when you serve them. If you like, you can also roll the gnocchi on a cutting board by pressing your thumb into each piece and quickly rolling it into a tube shape.
Simmer the gnocchi in salted water until every piece floats. Serve them with your favourite sauce or just as simple as they are ( in Italy we love when things are simple and pure flavors are sublimated) with melted butter and sauge, and a generous grate of Parmigiano Reggiano.