To be honest, I was never a fan of gnocchi. I attribute it to a bad gnocchi experience at one of those pasta restaurants that claim to serve “homemade gnocchi”. The gnocchi I tasted back then was dry and bland, hardly worth remembering. Since then, I avoided gnocchi whenever I see it on the menu. My impression of it changed slightly after a meal at a pizza/pasta place in Sorrento, Italy. It was alot tastier, though it was still a tat bit dry. A week ago, I saw a cooking show on Discovery Travel and Living featuring a gnocchi dish. This gnocchi was made of goat cheese and ricotta and looked simply divine. I decided to try to make gnocchi from scratch soon, and today was the day.
I found a recipe on Epicurious that had rather good reviews and decided to try it out. Moisture, I read, is an enemy of gnocchi and hence the potatoes need to be baked, not boiled. How troublesome! Determined to succeed on my first try, I decided to take no chances. Four potatoes went into the oven for one hour. Next, I had to rice the potatoes. I didn’t have a fanciful ricer (those that looked like a giant garlic press) and so did it using a old-fashioned ricer consisting of a sieve like metal plate and a handle. After ricing, the potatoes had to be spread out and cooled till room temperature before it can be mixed and made into a dough. Here’s what the gnocchi looked after they were rolled and cut.
I made a pork mushroom ragu to go with the gnocchi. The tomato based sauce was extremely flavourful, thanks to the black pig ham, Italian sausages, porcini, white wine and a whole load of other stuff. A very satisfying meal indeed.
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