Gnocci - Italian oval-shaped dumplings have become popular along with the rest of Italian cuisine. They differ from other dumplings, Polish, Czech and German, by their smaller size, the use of durum flour and various fillings in the dough. Gnocchi is served as a side dish or main dish, sprinkled with cheese and seasoned with sauce. Potato gnocchi is considered a classic.
Story
Like many other masterpieces of Italian cuisine, gnocchi was invented by peasants. They were obviously inspired by the variety of fruits and grains growing on the fertile soil of the Mediterranean. It was the custom of the peasants to eat gnocchi only on Thursdays. In Argentina and Uruguay, where this dish is also prepared, you could eat it every day, but on the 29th of each month it was mandatory. Then the next month will not bring financial difficulties.
There is also a legend about a priest who loved green gnocchi (with spinach in the dough) and did not know how to stop eating it. And then one day he swallowed several of them at once and choked. Since then, green gnocchi, by the way, very popular in Italy, began to be called “priest stranglers.”
Dough
The dough is based on flour and egg. The following are used as fillers: - Potatoes - Almonds - Rice - Liver - Corn - Semolina And yet, potatoes are considered the most traditional for Italian cuisine. The fact is that potato dumplings harmonize very well with Pecorino or Parmigiano cheese, as well as with traditional Italian sauces. They perfectly absorb sauces, merging with them in taste and aroma, creating a delicious composition together.
But the set of ingredients is not limited to potatoes, flour and eggs. Italians love colorful gnocchi. Color is achieved by adding additional ingredients: - tomato paste- spinach puree - parsley - basil - carrot puree - pumpkin puree Such additives will give the dumplings “cheerful” shades from yellow to dark red, as well as the desired flavor note. Gnocchi with porcini mushrooms is especially good in this sense.
How to cook gnocchi. Very simple. This is how our consultant Salvatore de Vivo advises doing it.
Ingredients:
500 g potatoes
100 g flour
1 egg
Salt to taste
Boil the potatoes in their jackets and peel them. Mash the potatoes, add the egg and salt, and, gradually adding flour, knead the dough. Then transfer the dough to a flat surface sprinkled with flour and knead well. The right dough should be soft and not stick to your hands.
Roll the dough into a thin cylinder, 2 cm in diameter, and then cut into small pieces of the same length and use your fingers to shape each into an oblong shape.
Bring a large saucepan of salted water to the boil, add the gnocchi and cook for about 2 minutes until the gnocchi rise to the surface.
Transfer the gnocchi to a warmed plate, sprinkle with freshly grated Pecorino cheese and serve.
What to serve with
It is customary to sprinkle the finished, still hot gnocchi with freshly grated Pecorino or Parmesan cheese. The type of sauce depends on the filler, but general case These are white sauces, like bechamel.
Useful tips
It is better to boil potatoes in their skins, and then peel them
Add flour to the mashed potatoes not immediately, but gradually, in several stages.
After pouring the gnocchi into the water, stir them to prevent them from sticking to the bottom or sides of the pan. Serve the gnocchi on warm plates.
Gnocchi di patate alle cozze - Potato gnocchi with mussels
This is one of my favorite recipes because:
1. These gnocchi (in Russian, dumplings) with an appetizing sauce are very easy to prepare.
2. It turns out not just tasty, but very tasty!
3. The recipe can be varied - for example, replace mussels with shrimp or any fish fillet, cut into small cubes. Or serve the prepared sauce simply with mashed or boiled potatoes, or even with pasta!
Preparing the gnocchi:
Peel the potatoes, boil them in salted water and prepare mashed potatoes. Grate Parmesan cheese on a fine grater. Salt mashed potatoes, and then, while it is still warm, knead the dough from it, gradually adding flour and grated cheese until it stops sticking to your hands (you may need more or less flour).
Roll the dough into a tube with a diameter of about 1.5-2 cm, lightly roll it in flour and cut into small round pieces.
Prepare the sauce with mussels:
On olive oil Lightly fry a clove of garlic, cut in half. Add mussels, a little broth (or just water) and simmer for 4 minutes.
Wash the tomatoes, cut the skin on top crosswise and scald them with boiling water. Remove the skin, cut the pulp into small cubes, add them to the mussels. Remove the garlic and simmer over high heat for 10 minutes. Then add salt, pepper, cream and finely chopped parsley to taste.
Boil the gnocchi in boiling salted water (as soon as they float, they are ready). Remove with a slotted spoon, mix with the sauce, sprinkle with more grated cheese and serve hot right away!
And one more thing
Gnocchi is a traditional Italian dish. Essentially these are miniature dumplings, which are usually served with a variety of sauces.
In Italy, gnocchi can be found everywhere. They are sold dried, fresh and frozen. Italians believe that every housewife should be able to cook gnocchi, because there is nothing tastier than homemade gnocchi, carefully prepared by the woman she loves.
Gnocchi can be based on various products, most often flour, cottage cheese (ricotta), semolina, pumpkin and, of course, potatoes. I really like the version of gnocchi made with potatoes. There is something close and familiar about it, akin to Russian cuisine.
It’s also nice that this amazingly tasty, soulful dish can be prepared even when it seems that almost all the food in the house has run out and you need to urgently run to the store. A minimal set of products, and the result is a nourishing, tasty, and unusual dish made from familiar ingredients. Let's get started?
To prepare potato gnocchi with basil, prepare the ingredients according to the list. Typically, 4-5 large potatoes are enough to make 2 medium-sized servings of gnocchi. You can double or triple the amount of ingredients and freeze some of the gnocchi.
Instead of basil, you can also use sage, oregano, thyme, tarragon and other fresh herbs to taste.
Prepare the main component of the dish - potatoes. Rinse, wipe dry, pierce with a fork in several places and bake, but not easily in the oven, and on a baking sheet covered with a thin layer of salt. Of course, you can just boil the potatoes, but the taste of potatoes baked in salt is much more interesting and brighter.
Bake the potatoes in an oven preheated to 200 degrees until cooked, as a rule, the process takes 30-35 minutes. The finished potatoes are easily pierced with a knife or wooden skewer, their skin dries out and is separated from the pulp. The salt can be saved and used again later.
Potatoes baked in this way are delicious on their own, but we will continue and prepare delicious gnocchi.
Cool the potatoes slightly. Peel and grate on a fine grater.
Add the yolk, chopped basil leaves, salt, ground black pepper, 1-2 tablespoons of flour.
Mix the ingredients and transfer the dough to a floured work surface.
Continue kneading the dough, gradually adding flour. The finished dough should not stick too much to your hands, remaining soft and pliable. The less flour, the more tender the finished gnocchi will be.
Divide the dough into several parts and roll into sausages. Cut into small pieces. Roll each piece of dough into a ball.
Using a fork, score the surface of the gnocchi. This step can be skipped, but it is believed that these grooves on the surface allow the sauce to better coat the surface of the gnocchi, making the dish much tastier. Well appearance, of course, they also improve.
To make grooves, place the fork as in the photo and, holding it with one hand, roll the ball along the fork with a light and quick movement as if you were going to roll it along the base up onto the handle. The ball will roll back with characteristic grooves on the surface. The process requires some skill, but after several attempts you will definitely succeed.
You can experiment with the amount of pressure, hold the gnocchi with your fingers on the sides, rolling back and forth, and even apply grooves across the entire surface of the gnocchi. Experiment and you will quickly find the most convenient option for you. At this point, the gnocchi can be frozen and used later.
Boil the formed gnocchi in boiling salted water for 1 minute. This stage is similar to cooking lazy dumplings– throw the gnocchi into boiling water and remove as soon as they float to the surface.
For the sauce, melt a few tablespoons of butter in a frying pan. Add a few basil leaves if desired. The sauce can be changed depending on your mood and time of year. Potato gnocchi will be equally good with tomato, cheese, mushroom, green sauce and pesto sauce.
Place the boiled gnocchi in the melted butter and gently heat everything together for a few minutes.
Our goal is not to fry the gnocchi, but only to heat it and bathe it in a fragrant sauce.
Serve the basil potato gnocchi hot, sprinkled with grated cheese or lemon zest.
Gnocchi is a great way to use up yesterday's potatoes - boiled or baked with their skins on. Little Italian gnocchi don't have to be made with potatoes, just flour and eggs, but potatoes add softness, fluffy texture, and hearty flavor.
Read the recipe to find out what kind of dough Italians make for gnocchi, and how and with what they can be served.
Recipe Ingredients
- boiled (baked) potatoes in skins 3-4 pcs.
- eggs 1-2 pcs.
- aged aromatic cheese 50 g
- smoked bacon 100 g
- nutmeg ground
- sprig of thyme
- butter 50 g
- parmesan cheese
- green
- corn or green peas
How to make potato gnocchi
Peel the potatoes. Using a fork or grater, chop the potatoes and place in a deep bowl.
Grate the cheese. You can replace cheese with ricotta or full-fat cottage cheese.
Add cheese to potatoes, beat in eggs, don't forget about nutmeg and dry thyme. Mix the whole mass with a spoon. Add a pinch of salt, no more, because the cheese is salty, and it is better to bring the dish to the desired condition later than to over-salt it during the process.
Sift the flour, add it in parts and knead the dough until smooth.
Knead first in a bowl, then transfer to a floured work surface.
Cut the dough in half, roll each part into a rope. The dough may become moist and sticky, but try not to add any more flour to ensure a soft gnocchi.- Flour your knife to prevent the dough from sticking. Cut the ropes into small pieces. Then dip your finger in the flour and press the pieces lightly until they look like pillows or barrels.
Place a pot of water on the stove, pour some vegetable oil, add salt and bring to a boil. Then thinly slice the bacon.
Fry the bacon in a frying pan until crisp, then drain off the fat.
When the water boils, lower the gnocchi to cook over low heat, stirring gently with a spatula.
As soon as the gnocchi begin to float, you can take them out.
Place the dumplings in the pan with the bacon and add a little more butter.
The gnocchi will take on a different texture once it's fried in the pan.
Sprinkle them with nutmeg or ground pepper. You can also add green peas or corn, then hold for a few more minutes.
When the crust appears on the gnocchi, you can turn off the heat.
Place the gnocchi on a plate, sprinkle with Parmesan and herbs, e.g. green onions and basil. Serve potato gnocchi with bacon and sauce - sour cream or ketchup.
Step 1: boil the potatoes.
First we need to prepare the potatoes. To do this, place a deep pan on the burner, pour clean water and turn on the stove temperature to high level. While the water is heating up, wash the potatoes under running water to remove sand and other contaminants. Next drop into boiling water washed vegetables, reduce the temperature of the stove and boil them for 40 minutes until fully prepared.
This can be determined using a toothpick or a knife; if the tool easily pierces the pulp of the root vegetable, then the potatoes are cooked; if not, then cook for another 5 - 7 minutes. Immediately after the vegetable is cooked, turn off the heat and pour it along with the water into a colander. Then put it on a plate and leave for 10 minutes, this time is enough for the potatoes to cool a little. 
Now carefully remove the skin, and without allowing the root vegetable to cool completely, proceed to the next step. Step 2: chop the potatoes.
To chop the potatoes, use a grater. We grate the potatoes on a grater with medium or small holes so that the mass is soft, uniform and without any lumps. This is very important for preparing our dish. Step 3: prepare the gnocchi dough.
Place mashed potatoes on a clean, flat surface and sift the required amount of flour directly onto it. 
Then add salt and with your hands begin to knead the mass into a homogeneous dough. It should stick to your hands a little; if necessary, you can add more sifted flour. The dough turns out soft, but at the same time quite dense. 
First give it a round shape, then an oval shape and cover with a kitchen towel. Let the dough rest in this state for 10 minutes.
Step 4: form the gnocchi.
After the required amount of time, remove the towel, lightly sprinkle the surface with flour and begin shaping. Using a knife, cut the dough oval into strips. 
Width approx. 3 - 3.5 centimeters.
Then we twist each one with our hands into a long, even sausage or sausage. 
And we cut it into equal pieces approximately the size of 2 - 3 centimeters. Now it's time to give these pieces the traditional gnocchi look. In order to ready dish absorbed various sauces better. In Italy they use rigagnocca for this purpose - it is a wooden device with a ribbed surface, but it can be safely replaced with a regular fork. 
Place one piece on the back of a fork and press down lightly. 
And now we carefully twist it. 
You should get neat fluted dumplings. Step 5: Boil the gnocchi.
Turn the stove temperature to high, pour water into the pan and place the container on the burner. Bring the liquid to a boil, add salt and add a little vegetable oil. Reduce the temperature of the stove and lay out the cooked gnocchi. In 1 minute or even less they will float, and this will mean that the dish is ready. We take them out with a slotted spoon and place them on a plate. Step 6: serve potato gnocchi.
Potato gnocchi is considered a second course and is served hot, most often with various homemade sauces, as well as seafood or vegetables. You can use any freshly squeezed juice or dry wine as a drink. Bon appetit! To prepare potato gnocchi, the root vegetable can not only be boiled, but also baked with the peel, that is, in its jacket. This process will take you approximately 1 hour. This way the potatoes will be less watery and the dough will be much easier to knead.
To give the dish a cheesy taste, you can add a little hard cheese, such as Parmesan, previously grated, to the dough.
You can chop potatoes not only using a grater, but also using a special potato masher, meat grinder, or through a metal sieve, gently rubbing it with a tablespoon. The main thing is that the vegetable is fully cooked and warm.
One faceted glass holds 150 grams of flour.
Do you want to cook an unusual Italian dish? The inhabitants of the Apennine Peninsula call delicious oval-shaped dumplings gnocchi. The recipe for this dish involves using the simplest ingredients. We will talk about how to prepare it in this article.
Origin
Along with the familiar pasta and pizza, gnocchi is a typical dish found in Italian cuisine. Recipes for its preparation have come to us from time immemorial. It can be assumed that our ancestors valued dumplings for their exceptional satiety and pleasant taste.
The word "gnocchi" comes from the Italian "nocchio", which means "wooden branch". This dish became widespread at the time when the Roman Empire began to conquer European countries. Over the past couple of thousand years, a myriad of different dumplings have been invented. Researchers believe that their prototype is Italian gnocchi. In the Roman Empire they were made from a mixture of dough similar to semolina porridge, and eggs. Now a similar dish is prepared in Sardinia.
Potato gnocchi appeared relatively recently. They were invented and brought to Europe only in the 16th century. Since about 1860 they have gained universal popularity. They were especially valued in Ciociaria, Abruzzo and some other Italian provinces. Potatoes are most often used in preparing this dish. high content starch.
Features
What should real Italian gnocchi look like? Firstly, they must be white(some shades are possible), and secondly, have a ribbed surface. One could easily write a treatise on the consistency of the dish we are describing, it is so difficult to achieve. Unique combination between meatiness and pliability, elasticity and softness is quite difficult to achieve. Of course, a typical Italian housewife can eyes closed guess the right consistency and turn gnocchi into culinary masterpiece. Our compatriots will have to work hard, but they can also master the necessary culinary skills.
Cooking secrets
It is useful for every housewife to know the secrets of making gnocchi:
- The classic recipe prescribes the use of the right type of potato. It is necessary to give preference to mealy varieties.
- In addition, the potatoes should not become saturated with water during cooking. To do this, it is better to wrap it in foil and bake it in the oven, but do not boil it.
- Next, knead the dough to the required consistency. To achieve the desired result, you should add egg whites and cheese, which will improve the structure of the dish.
- At the end of modeling, the gnocchi must be coated with ribs. They can be made by running a fork over each dumpling.
Classic gnocchi. Ingredients
Gnocchi - a dish with thousand years of history. It was very popular among common people, therefore it contains products that are accessible to any housewife:
- potatoes - one kilogram;
- flour - 200 grams;
- egg white - 150 grams;
- Parmigiano cheese - two tablespoons;
- nutmeg - one pinch;
- salt - to taste.
Classic gnocchi. Cooking method
- First of all, you should wrap thoroughly washed but unpeeled potatoes, one at a time, in foil. Next, you need to bake it in the oven until completely cooked. You can check it with a fork.
- After this, the vegetable must be cooled, peeled and pureed by hand or using a blender.
- Then you should mix the potatoes with flour, add salt, nutmeg, grated cheese and egg white to the mixture. Next you need to knead the thick dough. IN finished form it should not stick to your hands.
- After this, you should roll the dough into thin long sausages, two centimeters in diameter, and cut them into pieces two centimeters long.
- Then you need to run a fork over each piece to get nice ribs.
This way you can make ribbed oval gnocchi. Without exaggeration, Italian cuisine is proud of this dish. Recipes for making dumplings are carefully passed down from generation to generation and are kept a safe secret. In our case, we got traditional Italian gnocchi. For final cooking, they must be placed in boiling water and cooked until they float to the surface. After this, the boiled gnocchi can be fried in olive oil in a frying pan and served with meat or cheese sauce.
Gnocchi with beets. Ingredients
For the dumplings:
- cinnamon (ground) - one pinch;
- nutmeg - to taste;
- beets (boiled) - 150 grams;
- chicken egg - one piece;
- flour - 350 grams;
- salt - one pinch;
- pepper - to taste;
- potatoes - one kilogram.
For the sauce:
- butter - 60 grams;
- smoked brisket - 80 grams;
- fresh sage - 6 pieces.
Gnocchi with beets. Preparation
- To begin with, the beets should be baked or boiled. Next, the vegetable needs to be crushed to a puree using a mixer or blender.
- Then you need to bake or boil the potatoes with their skins. After this, it must be cleaned while still hot. To avoid getting burned, you can prick the vegetable with a fork.
- After this, the peeled potatoes should be passed through a press and collected in a large bowl.
- Then you need to add nutmeg, salt, pepper and cinnamon. Next, the mashed potatoes must be mixed with beetroot.
- Then you need to mix the egg into the mixture and gradually, in several stages, add the sifted flour.
- Now you should knead the dough. In order for it to form correctly, it is necessary to use potatoes with a high starch content. Otherwise, you will end up with tough, “wooden” gnocchi.
- The cooking recipe states that after kneading the dough, wrap it in cling film and place it in the refrigerator for half an hour.
- Next on work surface you should sprinkle the flour, form the dough into sausages and divide them into pieces two centimeters long. After this, you need to run a fork over the dumplings so that they acquire a ribbed surface. These grooves help to effectively capture the sauce in the final cooked dish.
- After this, the potato gnocchi should be placed in an airtight wide container with a lid and put in the refrigerator.
- Now you need to prepare the sauce. To do this, you need to boil water, chop the smoked brisket, and wash the sage leaves.
- Then in a frying pan butter you should fry the brisket.
- Meanwhile, cook the gnocchi in salted boiling water. The recipe indicates that they should not be thrown into the pan all at once. It is better to cook Italian dumplings in small batches and, as soon as they float, remove them with a slotted spoon.
- Next, the boiled gnocchi must be placed in a frying pan where the brisket is already fried. Along with them, you should add sage leaves to the dish. After this, give the products a couple of minutes to mix and remove the pan from the heat.
If you followed the recipe strictly, the gnocchi should be light and airy. They are usually served hot, along with various sauces.
Conclusion
Now you know how to cook gnocchi. The ways to create this dish are very diverse; they cannot be listed in one article. Italian dumplings are made from corn flour, spinach, arugula, pumpkin, semolina, carrots, chicken, etc. And the number of sauces invented for them is beyond description. Of course, preparing this dish will require some skill, but its taste will reward you for all the effort. Bon appetit!