Gnocchi di patate

The Veneto's cloud dumplings: floury potato riced while steaming hot and worked with just enough flour to hold their shape, rolled, cut, and pressed over a fork, dropped into boiling water and lifted out the moment they surface: the most forgiving and the most demanding pasta in Italy's repertoire, dressed in nothing but brown butter and sage

Origin: Italy

From the journey of Potato.

Gnocchi, dumplings, exist in Italian cooking in many forms (semolina gnocchi alla romana, ricotta gnocchi, bread gnocchi), but the potato gnocchi of the Veneto and Friuli Venezia Giulia is the version that became the most widely loved and most widely made in Italy and beyond. The potato arrived in northern Italy in the late 17th century, and the Veneto's tradition of small dumplings (which predates the potato in the form of 'gnocchi di pane' and 'gnocchi di farina') was immediately adapted to the new ingredient. The resulting gnocco di patate, made from riced potato, flour, and egg, became one of the most technically exacting preparations in the Italian domestic repertoire: too much flour produces rubber; too little produces dumplings that dissolve in the water. The genius of the preparation is its demand for restraint: only enough flour to bind, and only the lightest possible hand to avoid developing gluten in the dough. The traditional sauce is the simplest possible, browned butter with fresh sage leaves (burro e salvia), which allows the delicate potato flavour and yielding texture of the gnocchi to be the entire experience. Thursday is gnocchi day in Rome and the Veneto; 'Giovedì gnocchi, venerdì pesce, sabato trippa' ('Thursday gnocchi, Friday fish, Saturday tripe') is the Roman weekly food calendar.

Ingredients

Potato

  • 1 kg floury potatoes (Maris Piper, King Edward, or Russet Burbank), baked or boiled in their skins to minimise water absorption

Flour

  • g plain flour (00 flour preferred; start with 200g and add as needed)

Binding

  • 1 large egg, beaten

Seasoning

  • 1 tsp fine salt

Flavour

  • 0.5 tsp freshly grated nutmeg (optional, traditional in northern Italy)

Sauce

  • 80 g unsalted butter (for the sage butter sauce)
  • leaves fresh sage leaves
  • 50 g Parmigiano-Reggiano, finely grated (to serve)

Method

  1. Bake the potatoes in their skins at 200°C for 60–70 minutes until completely cooked through. (Alternatively, boil in skins until very tender, then drain and dry in the oven at 150°C for 10 minutes to remove surface moisture.) Split immediately and scoop out the hot flesh. Rice or pass through a fine sieve while steaming hot.
  2. Spread the riced potato on a clean work surface. Allow to steam and cool for 5 minutes; you want the steam to escape (further drying the potato) but the potato should still be warm when you work with it.
  3. Make a well in the riced potato. Add the salt, nutmeg, and beaten egg. Sift 200g of flour over the top. Using your hands, bring everything together with the absolute minimum of working; fold, press gently, fold again. The dough should just come together into a cohesive, slightly sticky mass.
  4. Divide the dough into 6–8 portions. On a lightly floured surface, roll each portion into a rope about 2cm in diameter. Cut into 2cm pieces with a sharp knife.
  5. Roll each gnocco over the back of a fork (or a wooden gnocchi board) with your thumb, pressing in and rolling away to create the characteristic ridges. The ridges are not decorative; they grip the sauce. Place the shaped gnocchi on a lightly floured tray.
  6. Cook immediately: bring a large pot of well-salted water to the boil. Cook the gnocchi in batches; slide them in gently, do not crowd. They are done 30 seconds after they float to the surface. Remove with a slotted spoon directly into the sauce.
  7. Make the sage butter sauce: melt the butter in a wide pan over medium heat. When it foams, add the sage leaves. Continue cooking until the foam subsides and the butter turns a nut-brown (nocciola) colour; about 3–4 minutes. Add the gnocchi directly from the water. Toss gently. Serve immediately with grated Parmigiano-Reggiano.

Notes

The ratio of potato to flour in gnocchi varies between 4:1 and 5:1 (by weight) in most Italian recipes; 1kg potato to 200–250g flour. The most common failure in gnocchi-making is using too much flour out of anxiety that the dough will not hold together: the result is leaden, chewy dumplings that bear no resemblance to the light, pillowy ideal. Italian nonnas who make gnocchi every Thursday develop an intuitive sense for the correct dough that cannot be fully captured in a recipe; the learning curve involves tasting a test gnocco (boil one before rolling all the dough) and adjusting accordingly.

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