How to make gnocchi
Gnocchi is probably one of the easiest pasta’s to make. Very little effort or man power is needed to make the dough and it’s only three ingredients?! Definitely something to make when your kitchen is looking sparse but makes you feel all fancy.
The secret with making gnocchi is honestly gut instinct. Sorry for those without any, might as well give up now. We tease. When you eat gnocchi, the best ones are always light fluffy pillows. So, we’re aiming for light clouds here. Yes, clouds. The trick to getting them light and fluffy is by adding as little flour needed to ensure the dough is combined. This is why the overall recipe requires so little flour but if more is needed by all means do what your hands are telling you to do. That’s right, let your hands speak to you. Let them tell you whether the dough needs more flour, not your eyes.
If you do feel like you need more flour, gently dust your hands with flour and allow that to be incorporated into the dough when kneading. Avoid chucking in tablespoons as you have less control with how much is actually needed and how much you have added. The same goes if your dough is to dry and you need to add more water.
Tips
If you have more time, baking the potatoes for this recipe is a personal favourite. This prevents extra water that the potatoes may be retaining seeping into the dough, leaving you with super light cloud like gnocchi.
We like to gently fry our gnocchi till it has a golden crispiness on the pillows – just adds another flavour and textural element. Fry in some burnt butter with sage for a simple quick dish or serve with some delicious fresh vibrant pesto for a sharp kick.
How to store gnocchi
You can store raw gnocchi dough in the fridge for up to a week. We personally, only like to leave it in the fridge for three days max though. Sometimes this time period may vary and gnocchi dough may only last a couple of hours in the fridge before turning an odd colour and water excretes. If storing in the fridge, do so keeping in mind the following:
- Ensure that when you do put the gnocchi dough in the fridge it is securely wrapped so that odours from the fridge do not absorb into the dough,
- Additionally, when storing in the fridge, make sure your gnocchi pillows are not touching, either lining with baking paper in between each one.
You can alternatively freeze the dough for a longer period. If you do decide to freeze the dough, it is important to cut the dough into shapes before freezing. It may be hard to work with the dough ball after it has defrosted.
- Form the dough and cut into shapes,
- Freeze on a tray lined with baking paper ensuring no pillows are sticking together,
- Once frozen, take out and pop all the gnocchi pillows into a zip lock bag. These are ready to be cooked straight from frozen.
Can I use alternative ingredients in my Gnocchi?
It’s surprisingly easy to switch out some of the ingredients in this dish for a healthier alternative. Or even a vegan alternative. Below we’ve described the ways this recipe can be adapted to suit your dietary needs!
Flour
You can substitute the flour in this recipe for gluten free flour, whole wheat flour or even spelt flour. Definitely play around with different types and let us know how they go!
Potato
You can swap out the maris pipers for sweet potatoes in this recipe. Just bake the sweet potatoes instead of boiling to make sure they don’t retain additional water.
Alternatively, for a lighter carb source, opt for cauliflower instead! We’re thinking of trying this out with some more vegetables so stay tuned for variations!
How to make vegan gnocchi
Simply remove the egg from this recipe and knead the potato mixture and flour as instructed. As more flour as needed, if you feel that you need a liquid, slowly incorporate olive oil, one tablespoon at a time.
| Prep Time | 25 minutes |
| Cook Time | 15 minutes |
| Servings |
people
|
- 430 g potatoes maris piper preferable
- 1 egg
- 100-150 g plain flour
Ingredients
|
|
- Place potatoes on boil in salted water for about 25-30 minutes. Depending on size of potatoes. We boiled them whole with skin on to skip the peeling process.*
- Once boiled, drain water and let cool down. Once cool enough to hold, peel the skin off the potatoes.**
- Beat egg in a bowl separately.
- Using a potato ricer or masher, mash all of your potatoes into a big bowl.
- Create a little well in the middle, add your egg and mix to combine.
- Once you feel your egg is mixed in with the potatoes, slowly add in 100g of the flour and mix until dough just comes together.
- Lightly dust a surface with flour and tip out gnocchi dough mix. This works best on a wooden work top or chopping board.
- Slowly and gently knead the dough adding flour if you feel it is still needed to form a stable dough.
- As soon as a mouldable dough is formed, your dough is ready! No need to rest or anything.
- Split dough into 4. Roll out one of the quarters in a snake and cut into 1.5cm length pillows (or however big you fancy).
- Keep gnocchi nicely floured to keep from sticking to one another.
- Split the cut gnocchi into two to three separate batches. Drop each batch into boiling water - cooking each batch individually - once gnocchi floats to the top, it's ready to eat!
*We love to bake our potatoes to ensure there is less moisture in our mix (more details above) but for ease of time we have left the recipe with a simple boil potato method.
**If you can handle the hot potatoes mix the eggs and flour in as soon as possible. The longer you leave the potatoes to cool, the heavier your gnocchi.
Once the gnocchi is cut up and floured, you can transfer to a zip lock bag. Make sure that no gnocchi is touching before they are frozen. Alternatively you can freeze the gnocchi pillows on a tray and then transfer to a ziplock bag once frozen.
