Featured, Recipes

Feeding the college appetite: Gnocchi Greatness

For this entry I decided to cook something a little more challenging than some of my past creations. This time around my lovely cooking assistant and I decided to make gnocchi, which is a potato dumpling. The use of potato to make the gnocchi is relatively new compared to it’s origin. Gnocchi is an Italian dish, but it’s roots can be tracked back to ancient Roman times. Gnocchi is a very time consuming meal to make, but all of the time you put into it pays off with the end result.

Gnocchi Ingredients:

  • 2 pounds (about 4) baking potatoes
  • 1 teaspoon salt
  • 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
  • 1 egg white
  • 1 1/2 cups unbleached all-purpose flour

Directions:

Pierce the potatoes several times so that moisture can escape during baking. Bake the potatoes in a preheated 400 degrees F oven for 1 hour until fork tender. Peel the potatoes while they are still hot and press them through a potato ricer. Put the potatoes in a large bowl with salt, baking powder, and egg white. Add the flour a little at a time and mix with your hands until the mixture forms a rough dough. Do not over-work the dough. Transfer the dough to a lightly floured surface. Gently knead the dough for 1 or 2 minutes until smooth, adding a little bit more flour, if necessary, to keep it from sticking.

Break off a piece of the dough and roll it back and forth into a rope, about the thickness of your index finger. Cut the rope into 1-inch pieces. Gently roll each piece down a wooden gnocchi board while pressing a small dimple with your finger. The gnocchi should be slightly curved and marked with ridges. This will allow the pillows to hold sauce when served.

Boil the gnocchi in batches in plenty of salted water. The gnocchi are done about 2 minutes after they float to the surface, remove with a slotted spoon, and serve. If not cooking immediately, place the gnocchi in a single layer on a baking pan dusted with flour. Cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate for up to 12 hours.

Note: If the gnocchi start to feather and fall apart in boiling water, you need more flour. If the gnocchi don’t float after 2 minutes and are hard, you used too much flour.

Recipe is from The Food Network

White Wine Sauce: Provided by About.com

Prep Time: 5 minutes

Cook Time: 8 minutes

Ingredients:

  • 5-7 Portobello Mushrooms
  • 2-5 garlic cloves (chopped)
  • 1 medium red onion (sliced)
  • 1 cup of spinach
  • 1/4 cup olive oil
  • 1/4 cup of white wine (consider Sauvignon Blanc or Albarino – they tend to complement the earthiness of the mushrooms)
  • 1/2 tsp pepper
  • 1/2 – 1 tsp Italian seasoning
  • sea salt (sprinkled to taste, just before serving)

*We also included Italian Sausage that we cut up and cooked with the rest of the sauce.

Preparation:

Saute garlic, onions and mushrooms in the olive oil until wilty and starting to brown (keep adding a bit more olive oil if most of it has been soaked up by the mushrooms). Next add the white wine, spinach, pepper and Italian seasoning. Turn heat down to medium low and keep stirring until spinach wilts. Sprinkle sea salt to taste and then pour the mushrooms, spinach, garlic and onion mixture along with remaining sauce over the gnocchi.
I hope you enjoy the gnocchi! It is a delicious meal well worth the time you spend preparing it. That are also many other types of sauces you can use for the gnocchi, you do not have to use this one(even though it is delicious)!
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