Homemade Gnocchi

A month or so ago, I read a book called The School of Essential Ingredients and felt inspired and a little bit outraged by how easy everything seemed in the cooking classes taught by the main character (for more, see my previous post The Mystery of Cooking). After I read the book, I found a recipe for homemade pasta in a cookbook I received as a birthday gift, and I determined that I would try to make homemade pasta myself without the aid of a pasta machine just like they did in the book. I bought all the tools at Bed Bath & Beyond a couple of weeks ago, and yesterday, I finally tried out my recipe for gnocchi. Below, I will explain some of the steps of the process. It wasn't too difficult to make, and I actually liked it so much better than the packaged kind you can buy at the grocery. The recipe is from A Taste of Home.

This is a potato ricer. I had never seen one used or worked with one until yesterday. It's like an over-sized garlic press or one of those playdough toys. After you boil the potatoes, you load them up in here, and then press away. I used about 1 lb. of potatoes.  

The potato ricer in action. It worked really well, and looked cool! 

One you've finished the potatoes, you want to make a well in them. After that, sprinkle the flour (2/3 cup) on top of the potatoes and into the well in the middle. Then, whisk an egg with some salt and nutmeg and pour it into the middle. Mix it with a fork starting in the middle and working your way out. 

It should make a really nice dough like this. After it's mixed really well, divide it into quarters. 

Then, flour up your surface, and roll out one of the quarters. The recipe says about a half inch thick, and I wish I would have made them that small! Smaller is better with gnocchi. 

My four rolls lined up. 

This tool is called a "bash n chop." I also had never used one of these, but it worked really well. It has a ruler on it, which makes it especially useful for jobs like these when you need to measure. Again, I wish I would have made them smaller. The recipe says 3/4 in. and that would have tasted much better than this size. 

I used two forks to make the grooves in them instead of one because my thumb kept wiping them off on whichever side the fork wasn't on. 

After this, all you have to do is boil them for 30-60 seconds or until they float up to the top. The potatoes are already cooked, so it's fast! 

The sauce was just butter, garlic, and some sage. Yum yum.