Homemade Potato Gnocchi
We. Made. Gnocchi. After sitting on my kitchen bucket list for quite some time, me & my kitchen faced the challenge of homemade pasta. In my mind, I chalked it up as a project that would take all day, result in flour all over me + my home, and just be this thing that I needed tackle vs. thoroughly enjoy. Yes - scratch gnocchi hasi been a project I’ve wanted to complete, but part of it seemed kind of daunting. I remember making homemade pasta with my parents as a kid and it was an all day ordeal. Granted, we were cranking out noodles of sorts (spaghetti, tagliatelle, linguine, etc), but it literally took sooooo long. The delicate dough & the drying & the pasta everywhere - it was wild times. In my mind, making gnocchi would be in that caliber of clear the schedule if you want to give it a go. I WAS SO WRONG!
Homemade potato gnocchi has to be the most manageable homemade pasta variation. It proved to be an activity that was not only a total blast, but it wasn’t crazy difficult at all. Following some basic steps with basic ingredients & you’re set. The dough is kind of resilient, which really worked in our favor. We were able to trust our guts and go heavy on the flour (which is reflected in my recipe), but it’s kind of that type of recipe. You think the dough needs a little more flour//a little more egg - go for it. Point being it seems to be a very correctable base, and it was super easy to work with. & any meltdowns related to gnocchi making going awry were totally avoided, which same cannot be said from my childhood pasta-making adventures.
Emphasis on this being a really fun kitchen adventure. I mean yes- it was messy, but I kind of love when my kitchen gets a little insane. Flour covered counter tops + dirty pans on the stove + cutting boards permeated by chopped herbs are like the equivalent of hanging a sign that says “the kitchen is where the heart is.” I mean, recognizably cheesy, but the point is that you can’t help but have a lot of fun when you’re making a mess. The mess with homemade gnocchi is from mixing the raw ingredients, eggs & all, with your bare hands & then rolling out the pasta dough right on the kitchen counter. Flour (kind of) everywhere, and aprons definitely required, but it’s such a simple-messy recipe that you’ll 100% end the night with delicious homemade pasta. Totally worth it! I highly recommend watching this video from Tasty - it’s what sparked my fire to knock this one off the bucket list + imparted the “how hard could it be?” sentiment. You can watch the process & get an idea of what it should look like, and getting a visual for the different steps was highly beneficial for our at-home attempt. Only flaw is the recipe//ingredients list is a tad ambiguous (like what is a medium sized potato?), but the video is what gave me the confidence to improvise with my dough (ie. add more flour or eggs to get a dough consistency that looked like what was in the video). Point being my recipe is what worked for us (& what I’ll be replicating on future kitchen adventure), but watch the video linked. It’s pretty damn helpful!
Going into the making of gnocchi - this was our big plan for the day. Post me running 10 miles (gotta earn the carbs) + post my husband mowing the lawn, we were getting in the kitchen together & making gnocchi. I’m a planner, and obsessed with making sure the process is achievable, so I cooked + peeled my potatoes early in the day as part of the project prep. When it came time to assembling the gnocchis, we got dirty together. I took on the role of project leader - I got out all the tools, and then directed Jordan on smashing the potatoes, mixing the eggs + flour, and knead the dough. But these are my husbands strengths! He’s the resident bread maker & pizza master at our house, & so he is familiar with (& quite good at) working with doughs by hand, getting his hands dirty, and kneading to perfection. I could probably use a few pointers from him! So I put him in charge of the execution while I observed and tried to take some mental notes on his technique (ie. he kneaded the dough a little differently than what was showed in the Tasty video, so conclusion is do what you’re comfortable with). He got us all the way to forming the dough into one big ball & portioning it to 4 equal pieces, & together we rolled out the raw dough into long ropes, & cut & formed our gnocchi together. I think my gnocchi nuggets were a little smaller (I used my index finger as the spacer between each cut, which I recommend) while Jordan’s were noticeably bigger. But who the hell really cares, right? Made it look a little more homemade that way, and we both had fun crafting our own pieces. & we both ended the assembly process thinking “holy crap - we just made pasta from scratch and didn’t totally fuck it up.”
It wasn’t over just yet - still had to boil & cook our little potato pillows. & in the back of my mind I was like “so is this where things go all wrong and they disintegrate in the boiling water?” My frozen bag of cauliflower gnocchi was at the ready! But no - there was no disaster which meat no store bought gnocchis needed. Literally sighs of relief on my part, and again that self gratifying feeling that we truly did it.
Best part of the whole thing - y’all, it was so good! The whole thing is completed with a yummy sauce & a pan pan fry of the gnocchis themself so that you end the night eating a warm bowl of these little potato pillows - browned & sauced to your degree of perfection. Serve with a simple green salad and roasted veggies (whatever in our pantry we were going to make work, because quarantine, ya know?), & you have a perfect meal. It was fun from cooking to eating, & something we’ll absolutely do together again. A little Beastie Boys + Matt & Kim in the background, some new PNW beers to try, & it was our perfect vibe.
Okay, so along with this being a really fun project, there’s a couple things to remember when you’re embarking on a homemade gnocchi journey (& what I’m keeping tabs on) to make sure it’s a delicious + enjoyable the whole way through:
Get ahead by starting early. I boiled the potatoes while I was having lunch, and by the time we wanted to start making gnocchi they were cooled & ready to go. You can even make the gnocchi ahead of time and let them chill in the fridge for a bit while you have a drink, play a game, or just do whatever the hell you want before you finish cooking.
Don’t get too creative with gnocchi forming - keeping it simple is more than good enough. If you watch the Tasty video, you’ll see some fancy fork rolling to make these fancy little gnocchi nuggets. But this is also the step where you can pretty easily screw it up. So keep it simple. I found just cutting the ropes to produce simple square sized pieces was good enough, and effectively removed the opportunity deform the gnocchis during this final stage of prep. & they look really good served up in this simple form!
Don’t be afraid to add more flour! If your dough is sticky, add more flour (in moderation). If you’re finding it difficult to roll the dough into ropes, add more flour (you need more flour on the surface below you to roll the dough into ropes with ease). Flour is your friend, and if you have a sticky dough, don’t worry about adding about a 1/2 cup of additional flour in at a time to help your cause.
So this is an important one - this recipe doesn’t skimp. You are going to end up with so many gnocchis, so have a plan. If you want to save some for later, look into freezing half. If you’re cooking them all at one, double the sauce recipe your following (trust me - it’s necessary). For me & Jordan, we went the route of gnocchi two ways, which is like our favorite thing to do these days. Everyone gets a pan & we cook side by side - our own ingredients, our own recipe, and our own independent dish that’s tied together by a common thread (in this case gnocchi is the common thread - duh). Once the dough was formed into one single ball, we divided the dough in half so each of us were rolling out thin ropes of pasta dough, & proceeded to go the route of each making our own sauce//accompaniments so that we sat down at the table with two distinct gnocchi dishes. Jordan opted for a traditional “Sunday gravies” style gnocchi dish, meanwhile I went for Homemade Gnocchi with a Gorgonzola + Mushroom Cream Sauce (which is the recipe I’ve linked). I say this so often about our taste preferences when it comes to food - he’s a purist that like the traditional preparation & I’m the off the wall nut who’s thinking “how crazy can we make it?” I think our individual chosen path’s for this gnocchi is just more proof.
My biggest joy of quarantine is changing the narrative around how we prioritize time at-home, and finding more time to do these things that are just fun. No element of real productivity tied in & a total disregard for the “have to” items on our respective to do lists - just shit that is on our “want to” list. Reading + taking our dogs on walks + spending hours in the kitchen together (making something like homemade gnocchi) + trading in Monday emails for a day trip. These are things that often cross my mind as “that would be fun” but I’ve been quick to jump to into the mindset of “I don’t have time” as I mentally start listing off all the things I feel like I should be doing instead. Those chores to keep my household running or fitting in a workout - that shit takes coordinating and often they take precedent to just kicking my feet up & diving into a “want to” task.
I mean count your blessings - I really try to cherish the time we’re working together as quality time & will continue to describe working together at the bar as datenight. It’s time we’re together & having fun & enjoying each other’s company, & I love that it usually means late night date drinks (even if it’s just at our own bar). But there is a level of “have to” do it involved because it’s our job. We have to be working & be on this work date with all our other customers (so maybe it’s more of a group hang? ha). Regardless, I love that we try to make the most of our overlapping work schedules (it’s one of my greatest joys in non-quarantine life), but I’ve personally needed to change the narrative around life at home. Making the most of my time at home & having no wasted days means being selfish and having a cadence of doing things just for pleasure, and sometimes letting life’s responsibilities live on the back burner. I mean what’s going to happen if instead of washing all the windows + cleaning the floors + working like a dog until 4 o’clock we have a movie marathon or read + sip coffee in bed until noon? Or what about not actually starting work until I’m physically at the bar, and spending my morning making lunch or cookies to enjoy when I’m back home? The house isn’t going to burn down. Our taproom isn’t going to fall to pieces. Quarantine has given me a really sweet gift of more nights at home, & the re-discovery that penciling in time for these “want to” tasks is invaluable for my own lust for life. So if ditching minor responsibilities is how I find time for these fun moments post quarantine, than screw it - I’m going for it!
Our gnocchi party + Jordan’s beard in the height of quarantine coincided. I just need it to be documented.
For the potato gnocchi
4 russet potatoes
2 eggs
Salt & pepper
2 c. - 2 1/2 c. flour (plus more for rolling out the dough)
For the sauce
6 tbsp butter
2 lb. cremini mushrooms, sliced
2 garlic cloves, minced
1 c. heavy cream
1/4 c. - 1/2 c. chicken broth
1 c. crumbled blue cheese (I went with a semi-soft gorgonzola)
1 tbsp fresh thyme, chopped
3 c. shredded kale
Salt & pepper
Parmesan cheese (for garnish)
Place a large pot of water over high heat and bring to a boil. Throw in the potatoes once the water is boiling, and let them cook uncovered for 25-30 minutes. The potatoes are ready to be taken out of the pot when they’re fork tender. Let them cool at room temp for an hour or two.
To make the gnocchi, peel the potatoes and transfer them to a large bowl. Use a potato smasher to really pulverize the potatoes - you don’t need to be gentle. Crack the eggs right into the bowl and add in a pinch of salt and pepper. Mix together with your hands. Place 2 cups of flour onto your counter in a small mound, and dump the potato mixture right onto the flour. Start gently kneading the dough so the flour becomes incorporated into the potato mixture. The dough should start to become a bit dry, and it should stop sticking to the counter. Significantly less wet than where you started! If after two cups the dough is still wet and hard to work with, add in a 1/2 cup more flour. Mold the dough into a large ball, & quarter the dough. Separate a quarter of the dough in half, and roll out each dough into a rope about 1/2 inch thick (so you have two ropes). If the dough is difficult to roll out, place more flour on your surface. Use your index finger as a spacer, and cut the rope into small nuggets. Place the cut gnocchis onto a baking sheet. Repeat this process with the rest of the dough. Refrigerate the gnocchi until you’re ready to cook.
Sauce making: Start by placing a large sauce pan of medium heat + a large pot of water over medium heat (the water is in prep for the gnocchi cooking). In your saucepan, add the butter. Once melted, add in the mushrooms & a large pinch of salt + pepper & cook for 10 minutes, stirring occasionally (but not too often because you want them to brown). Add in the garlic, cook for another 2-3 minutes. Reduce the heat to medium low, & add in the cream. You want to bring the sauce to a simmer, but make sure the heat isn’t too high so that your sauce doesn’t separate. Cook for 3 minutes. Add in the blue cheese, a 1/4 c. at a time, and stir until fully melted. Repeat until all the blue cheese is used. If the sauce becomes too thick, add in a 1/4 c. of chicken broth at a time to thin it out, being sure to keep the sauce at a simmer. When all the blue cheese has been melted in, stir in the kale & fresh thyme. Reduce the heat to low.
Crank the heat under the large pot of water to high. Once boiling, add in a couple gnocchis. Once floating, remove from the water and place gnocchis in the pan with the sauce. Repeat this process, placing a couple handful of gnocchis in the water at a time, and once floating removing from the water into the sauce pan. Totally ok for a bit of the cooking liquid to sneak into the pan with the sauce. Repeat until all the gnocchi is cooked. Toss the gnocchi in the sauce to make sure all of the pasta is coated in sauce. Cover and keep over low heat until you’re ready to eat.
Serve your gnocchi in warmed bowls, topping with some parmesan cheese for a final touch. Enjoy!