A Gnocchi Experiment

Okay, I really need to wait and see how these taste before I declare gnocchi-making easy. But, considering that many of my food experiments take me hours, make me want to cry, and then kind of fail, the fact that these came together in under an hour and are –so far– structurally sound makes me feel really successful.

I adapted Mark Bittman’s Chickpea and Ricotta Gnocchi (…Everything Vegetarian; p. 626)

Lemon Pepper Potato-Ricotta Gnocchi

• 2 palm-sized Yukon Gold potatoes; peeled, boiled and riced (yields about 3 C)
• 2/3 C Ricotta Cheese
• Fresh zest of one lemon
• 1 tsp freshly ground black pepper
• 1/4 C + 1 Tbl Sorghum flour* + extra for the board
• 2 Tbl GarFava flour*

* I wanted to make these gluten-free but feel free to use regular flour if you are able. Up to 1/2 C, added 1/4 C at a time. Also, I think rice flour or maybe rice and corn flour would be better (tasting) than the Sorghum and GarFava for GF folks.

1. Peel the potatoes, cut into similarly sized chunks, boil in salted water until a fork slides easily into the biggest chunks. Drain and allow to cool.When cool put through a ricer or a food mill (medium blade).

2. Put a small pot of water on to a boil. Meanwhile, in a bowl, use a fork to mix with the potatoes with the ricotta, zest and pepper. Mix in  1/4 C of flour. Add remaining flour one or two Tbl at a time until the mixture just barely forms a dough.

3.Turn the water down to nice gently rolling boil. Pinch a piece off and drop it in the boiling water. If it completely and instantaneously disintegrates you need more flour. If it more or less holds together until it floats to the top, you’re good.

4. Turn on to a lightly floured board and knead for a minute or so. This is actually important if you use regular flour because you will develop a little gluten here which helps the binding. If you do the gluten-free thing, I just pushed it around to make sure it actually held together as a dough.

5. Pull off chunks, roll into 1/2 inch thick ropes then cut into 1-inch lengths (I cut mine like little diamonds and they are smaller than 1-inch). Lay them out with space between them (no touching!) on an a baking sheet covered with wax paper. Now you can cook or freeze them.

For cooking: Bring some water to that same gentle boil. Add a bunch (not too crowded) when they float, give them about 20 more seconds than remove with a slotted spoon.

For freezing: put the sheet tray in the freezer. Give them about an hour to freeze separately, then put them in plastic bags or other freezable receptacle. Below is a wee tray of the ones I made. I’m guessing I got about 8 dozen gnocchi out of this round. Will post about flavor when I cook ’em.