This homemade gnocchi is divine and the whole process takes less than an hour. There are two essential things about making perfect gnocchi: the first is not to peel the potatoes before cooking them and the second is to make sure the cooked potatoes are still warm when you go on to make the gnocchi. Obey the golden rules, and you will be singing in the celestial gnocchi choir.
Prep Time 30
Serves 4
Cook Time 30 Minutes
Difficulty Easy\
Ingredients
- Potatoes – 600g/21oz
- Wheat flour – 180g/6.3oz
- Eggs - 2
- Parmesan – 1 spoon
- Spinach – 1 large tablespoon of spinach puree
- Tomato puree – 1 spoon
- Mixed mushrooms – 300g/10.6oz cleaned and sliced - Ingredients for the mushroom sauce
- Garlic – 1 clove, finely chopped
- Onion – half, finely chopped
- Extra virgin olive oil
- Salt
- Pepper
- Single cream – 80ml/2.7oz
- Orange – for the zest
- Parsley
- Olive oil with chillies
Method
- Boil the potatoes whole in salted water with their skins on. It’s important to leave the skins on so they don’t absorb too much water. When they have cooled slightly, peel the skins off. Pass the potatoes through a potato ricer then mix in all the ingredients. To make the three colours, divide three ways: add the spinach to one third to make green, add tomato to another third to make red and leave the final third as is. Take a palm sized lump of mixture at a time and roll it into long sausages about 1cm thick. Cut into inch-long pieces to make the gnocchi, adding a little flour to prevent them from sticking. Cook the gnocchi in salted boiling water for a few minutes – the gnocchi should all rise to the surface, drain and cool them in cold water. Drain well and add some olive oil or vegetable oil to prevent them from sticking. You can keep the gnocchi like this in the fridge for up 4 days. Brown the onion and garlic in olive oil over a low heat, add chopped mushrooms and cook them very quickly with salt and pepper. If you wish, add a little (80ml/2.7fl oz) of fresh cooking/single cream and orange zest. Cut the zest into tiny julienne-style pieces and put into boiling water for one minute (to take the bitterness off). Cook the gnocchi in boiling water for one minute, remove with a strainer and season with the mushroom sauce. Once served, drizzle with Nudo olive oil with Sicilian chillies.