Gnocchi Fest
By Talitha Daelemans

Whenever my boyfriend and I go out to a fairly good or authentic Italian restaurant—not the Americanized ones—he always orders the gnocchi because he had a fabulous bowl of it on my birthday last year at one of our favorite restaurants in Chicago. No one has yet lived up to that first bowl and since he's been extra nice and put up with more than the usual amount of drama from me lately, I decided to make him gnocchi from scratch.

I'd often contemplated making gnocchi from scratch but would quickly talk myself out of it because it seemed a very daunting task; it didn't hurt that my Neapolitan grandmother refused to make it her entire adult life. I discovered that in all actuality making gnocchi "dough" is very easy but the rolling of the individual gnocchi can take a little longer than one would like.

I personally find the rolling therapeutic; at least that's what I tell myself to keep from drumming my head on the counter. Don't let me scare you off, it's not bad and the reward is fantastic.

There are two basic kinds of gnocchi, potato and ricotta. Potato gnocchi calls for fewer ingredients and is the kind my boyfriend covets, though he had never tried the ricotta kind. For this festival of gnocchi my mother and I decided to make several variations of the potato kind and my sister Kathleen who you all know and put up with err love, made ricotta.

Gnocchi Research
My mother loaded me up with cookbooks to try to find a good recipe for potato gnocchi. So I sifted through the mountain of books and found several reputable sources but they seemed to disagree on the type of potatoes to use and whether or not an egg should be added. Some recipes called for boiled potatoes and some called for baked, so we decided to make a full batch of each and add egg to half of each batch, and see which one we liked best.

Potato Mash
We boiled and baked our potatoes and waited for them to cool enough to work with. Next, we pushed the potatoes through a potato ricer, which I discovered is not as easy as it claims to be. If you're squishing a lot of potatoes, I suggest you use a food mill. It's easier all around and you don't have to be religious about getting all the peels off.

Let the Games Begin
As the recipes instructed, we added flour to our milled potatoes to form a rough dough. This is where all the books said it would get tricky because there's a precise amount of flour required for the dough to come together that once exceeded leaves you with unpalatable heavy little blobs. If you add too little flour the gnocchi will fall apart in the gnocchi water when you go to cook them. The flour needs to be added a little at a time until it gets to the right consistency. The book said to mix the flour in by hand. Add a little, squish a little. I'm not one to get my hands dirty if I don't have to so first I tried adding the flour a little at a time using a spoon to mix it in and quickly discovered the spoon method didn't work as well as the hand method. When I dug in with my hands the dough came together beautifully.

Because we wanted to understand the difference between potato gnocchi with egg versus potato gnocchi without egg, we divided the dough in half, placed them in separate bowls and added egg yolk to one of the bowls. This made the dough too wet so we added flour a little at a time until the dough came back together.

Rock and Roll
The way in which rolling gnocchi was described in all of the books mystified me. They were all basically saying the same thing but in a backwards way. I found my own way, which was in fact their way. I will attempt to explain it better (I hope) than the books.

You'll need a fork and a knife (a butter knife is fine as it's just for cutting the dough). Take a handful of the dough and roll it out into a "snake" (you know the kind you made in kindergarten) about as big around as your index finger. Now cut the "snake" into one inch long pieces. This is the part that I didn't understand when it was explained to me. Hold the fork as though you were going to feed someone, place one of the cut pieces (they kind of look like fluffy pillows) in the center of the fork tines, and gently press your finger into the "pillow" (now it looks like someone slept in it). Then use your finger to brush/half roll it off the fork and it will curl up over it self. Viola a perfect little gnocchi! Now do it a bunch more times until you have enough for a meal. I suggest you do this in front of the television or rope someone into helping you so the task is more enjoyable.

Potato Bombs
Because we made a double batch and wanted to explore the taste and textural differences of each, we cooked the gnocchi in stages so everyone could taste and compare together. Cooking gnocchi is like cooking pasta only faster. It requires bringing a large pot of water to a boil. When the water is boiling like crazy, add the gnocchi, reduce the water to a strong simmer and cook the gnocchi until it rises to the top and looks firm enough to lift out with a Chinese strainer (easily found in large department stores with kitchen departments). Gnocchi takes about three to five minutes to cook, no more.

Once the gnocchi is cooked, remove it to a waiting pan with only enough "sauce" to cling to each dumpling. We prepared to sauces, a simple tomato sauce and a butter "sauce" (melted butter infused with a fresh sage leave we tore by hand). No matter the sauce, we grated fresh parmesan over each plate of gnocchi just before tasting.

Culinary Discoveries
We found the boiled potatoes needed more flour and ended up a little pastier than their baked counterparts. The batches of gnocchi made with egg yolk did not make the dough easier to handle (as several cookbooks suggested). The egg added flavor but nothing more. My Mom and I didn't really care for the egg flavored gnocchi. Our favorite was plain baked potato gnocchi minus the egg yolk. They were light and fluffy and they melted in your mouth.

Bust or Best?
Gnocchi is defiantly a dish I'll make again. I'll plan to spend a lazy Sunday afternoon in the kitchen and I'll make a double batch so I can freeze a bunch for nights I'm "starving for something good".

Potato Gnocchi with Tomato Parmesan Sauce

Serves 4-6

Gnocchi:
2	pounds russet or other baking potatoes
1/2	cup all purpose flour, plus more if needed
1 1/2	teaspoons kosher salt
Sauce:
2	teaspoons olive oil
1	small sweet onion, diced
1	clove garlic, minced or grated
1	28 oz. can ground peeled tomatoes
	Kosher salt to taste
1/2	cup fresh basil, chopped
1/3	cup parmesan cheese, freshly grated

	For the gnocchi, preheat oven to 400 degrees. Scrub potatoes and place them in oven. Bake for 45-55 minutes or until easily skewered.
	Let potatoes cool slightly, so they are easier to handle, cut in half, lengthwise, scoop out the insides press through a ricer or food mill (if you don't have either of those press through a small-mesh strainer) into a bowl. Let cool for 15-20 minutes more.
	Add salt and 1/4 cup of the flour and kneed together with your hands, adding more flour a little at a time until the dough holds together.
	Take a portion of the dough and roll it into a "snake" that is about as thick as your index finger. Then cut the snake into 1/2 inch pieces and roll them on a fork (see instructions above). Repeat until dough is used up. (If you're going to freeze the gnocchi place them on a plate or cookie sheet and freeze them for about an hour or more, then place them into Ziploc bags for more convenient freezer storage.)
	For the sauce, in a sauce pot over medium heat add olive oil and onions. Cook until the onions are translucent then add the garlic and cook for 1-2 min. Pour in tomatoes and add salt, cook until heated through. Stir in basil and parmesan. Keep warm on burner.
	To cook the gnocchi, bring four quarts of water to a boil in 6 quart pot. Add about 10-15 of the gnocchi to the water, they cook best in batches this size. A few seconds after they start to float remove them from the water with a slotted spoon, and place into serving bowls. Top with sauce and serve.