Homemade Gnocchi

I had a fantastic weekend, generally cooking and eating lots of fabulous things. There's nothing like a bit of time to spend pottering in the kitchen, hence homemade gnocchi. I tried making this once at university with pumpkin I think, anyway it was a disaster, the high water content in the pumpkin just made gloopy blobs of the gnocchi and I've been put off a bit since then.

Anyway, I was browsing 101cookbooks.com, looking for a pesto recipe, when I came across the gnocchi recipe. I followed this recipe pretty loosely as to be honest, there was a lot of waffle to wade through. Either way, we ended up with delighful pillows of gnocchi that I decided to fry instead of boil, just because I've never done it before. The browned bits on the gnocchi went really well with the smokiness of the red pepper pesto we had with it. It was one of those dinners where you spend the whole time exclaiming about how GOOD it is. A success I think... so now I'm thinking that you could probably make loads of this and freeze half, then pop them straight in boiling water to cook (you know when gnocchi is cooked as it floats to the surface) and then try this Nigella recipe.

I didn't add anything to the gnocchi, which was fine as they were still amazing, but I thinking some extra flavourings could be pretty good, for next time, I have several ideas, one is to use cheese - mozzarella, ricotta, gorgonzola, or basil, spinach, mushrooms etc.

Ingredients

Serves 2

500g waxy potatoes
200g plain flour
1 egg, beaten
salt and pepper

Peel and dice the potatoes and boil in salted water until tender. Drain and push through a potato rice if you have one, if not make sure you mash them well to get rid of any lumps. Spread the fluffy potato out on a chopping board and allow to cool. Once cool add the egg, flour and plenty of seasoning. Carefully incorporate this into the potato, gradually bringing it in to form a dough, knead for a few minutes then cut into about 4 pieces. Roll these pieces out into long sausage shapes, about 1in thick, then cut into pieces about 1in long. To make the charactersitic gnocchi marks, use a fork to press on the top of the gnocchi, once done, place onto a floured plate.

To cook either boil for a few minutes in plenty of boiling water or fry gently for a few minutes on each side.

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