Knock Knock Gnocchi

Tonight was my first foray into making gnocchi - spinach gnocchi to be precise.  There seems to be no escaping a huge mess when cooking Italian and tonight was no exception.  Or perhaps I'm just a messy cook?

Without further ado... My journey through the land of gnocchi.

Potato and Spinach Gnocchi

Gnocchi di Papate e Spinaci

Serves 4

• 675 g spinach
• 800g potatoes
• 200g flour

• 2 egg yolks, lightly beaten
• 50g butter, melted
• 50g Parmesan cheese, freshly grated
• Salt

1. Rinse spinach and shake off most of the water.  Cook the spinach (no added water, just what's on the leaves) for 5 minutes, drain, squeeze as much water out as possible and chop.
2. Cook potatoes in lightly salted boiling water until tender (approx 25 minutes) and mash while still hot
3. Mix potato, spinach and flour.  Season with salt, beat in egg yolks and kneed the dough for a few minutes.
4. Shape dough into several long rolls (about 1.5cm thick) and cut into 2cm lengths.
5. Bring a large pot of lightly salted water to boil, drop in gnocchi a few at a time.  Remove with slotted spoon when they rise to the surface.
6. Drain well and serve on a warm serving dish, drizzle with melted butter and sprinkle Parmesan.



LEFT:  Messy gnocchi rolling - use a bench next time
RIGHT:  How to melt butter and keep gnocchi warm when you don't have
 a microwave (but you do have a very small sink and really hot water)



My notes: 

I only had four potatoes which amounted to about 300g when peeled (peeling lost about 100g) so I halved (plus a bit more) the rest of the ingredients. 

I also used frozen spinach, which I thawed and cooked with the potatoes as they were nearly done.  A salad spinner works well for eliminating water.

As a topping for the gnocchi I softened a chopped onion in some olive oil then added chopped celery, capsicum, cherry tomatoes and garlic (just veges I had in the fridge).  I added half a tin of chopped tomatoes to make things saucier. 

We picked up some French sausages from the supermarket on the way home from work, so I popped them under the grill to cook (don't forget to puncture them a few times so they don't explode out of their skins) so as much fat as possible drips out.  I chopped them roughly and added them to the veges.

Saucy French Sausages

 

French sausages
(just in case clarification is required)



Spoon gnocchi into a warm bowl, top with saucy French sausages, sprinkle with Parmesan and savour.



Ok so the lighting is not that good...

Lessons in hindsight:

• Bribe someone to do the dishes
• Wear an apron
• Don't try to roll the gnocchi worms on a floured chopping board (the board will skid all over the bench).  Realise and embrace the mess, flour your bench top and life will be much easier
• Gnocchi is really filling - you need much less than you think