Weekly Dish

Every cook must have her proverbial thorn-in-the-side dish. You know, the one you’ve tried and tried and tried again only to fail miserably each time. My most recent thorn has been the little Italian potato dumplings called gnocchi. I once bought premade gnocchi from the grocery, and they were pretty good but really expensive for just potatoes and flour. So I tried to make my own. How hard could it be to bake a few potatoes and combine them with flour? I made a huge, sticky mess, and the dumplings (if you could call them that) tasted gluey and bland. My next attempts, using various recipes, were no different. So I decided to throw in the towel. If we were to eat gnocchi at our house, it would have to come from an expensive plastic package, much to my chagrin.

And then, the lovely and talented Ivonne at Cream Puffs in Venice posted a gnocchi recipe during her Piemontese foods series in honor of the Olympics. She swore it was easy and fool-proof, and her instructions, complete with pictures, looked as if they might end my gnocchi woes.

With some sideline coaching from Ivonne, I’m happy to report that the gnocchi turned out just as she describes: the dough was elastic but not too sticky, and the dumplings floated to the top when they were ready, just as they were supposed to. Mine aren’t quite as pretty as hers; I couldn’t quite get the hang of the fork indentions, but they tasted lovely nonetheless. I tossed the hot dumplings with butter and a combination of fontina and Parmesan cheeses, as Ivonne suggests. To make the meal a bit more substantial and add some color, I topped each serving with a spoonful of chunky oven-roasted tomato sauce. The end result was a delightfully simple and satisfying supper.

Notes: The problem, I discovered, with my earlier gnocchi attempts was that I was using regular baking potatoes that are entirely too starchy. Waxy potatoes make a huge difference! I used Yukon Golds for this recipe. Also, refrigerating the dumplings before adding them to the boiling water also helps a great deal. They hold their shape nicely after having some time to firm up in the fridge. If you’re looking for a fool-proof way to try gnocchi, I urge you to try Ivonne’s recipe. I’m already thinking of variations for my next attempt…

Posted: Sunday, April 2nd, 2006 at 11:15 am Filed under: Main Dish, Vegetables, Pasta. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.