A recipe for potato gnocchi

Remember how comforting last month’s potato pierogies were? I do! Well, we stuck with the potato-pasta-dumpling theme this month, leaning into those vibes as much as we might need them in 2021, particularly because very little feels as good as the accomplishment of fresh pasta.

For those unfamiliar, gnocchi is more of a reference to shape than substance. When I’ve made gnocchi in the past, it’s been carrot gnocchi, in an attempt to like carrots more, or ricotta gnocchi, in an attempt to use up leftover ricotta. Neither of those held together as well as I would have liked. But when I saw this regular potato gnocchi recipe, it seemed like a moment to purposefully buy some russets and get to shaping. (There is a ricotta gnocchi recipe in the book, but that’s for another day!)

You’ll notice that this recipe calls for nutmeg; we did not have fresh nor dry, so that didn’t make it in there. But this recipe begins in the same way the pierogies did: with boiling and mashing some potatoes. In what may be an absolute first, I will admit here that I slightly under-boiled said potatoes, and as a result they were very difficult to mash. This was certainly partly due to the fact that you don’t add milk or butter to them, but probably mostly due to laziness. I was adventurous enough to make my own pasta on a weeknight, but clearly, it stopped there.

Since this recipe did not indicate how many it served, I consulted a Times recipe for comparisons sake; it said it served four but only used two potatoes. As such, I diligently followed this one and stuck with four. But when it came time to mix the (roughly) mashed potatoes with the flour, I began to suffer from a deadly disease called hot hands, which afflicts those who do not want to wait for their potatoes to cool before beginning the next step. Reader, you have been warned.

Surprisingly (to me at least) the potatoes really did the trick on the gluten front and the dough easily held together, though it took some work to push out their lumpiness and I was worried I didn’t do a good enough job and you’d be able to tell when you bit in. Shaping them was absurdly easy, though you’ll see I didn’t do the fancy tine thing where you roll them and they really look like gnocchi; these are homespun. All told dinner probably came together in an hour, maybe less, and it was certainly not laborious.

My gnocchi were served with a slightly spicy and delicious vodka sauce with parmesan (of course) and parsley on top, and a side of roasted broccoli and Jarlsburg. A successful potato season, however long it lasts, continues.

Donations Time: Last month, $110 went to Feeding America. This month, your money will go to RWCF COVID-19 Emergency Relief Fund, an “an advocacy and action nonprofit created by and for restaurant workers.” You can sign up or switch to become a donor to this newsletter for $5 a month or $30 a year right here. The cost of a bag of potatoes a month! Maybe two!