Sweet Memories and Gnocchi

            Like everyone else I have my food memories. A lot of them stem from my family’s cooking but every once and a while one comes from a meal that I ate out. This is certainly the case for the subject of this little blurb. On very special occasions we would go out for what we called a fancy meal, a sit down dinner with many forks and if it was a really special night a couple of bottles of wine off of a list not off of the rack. One of these meals took place on what I remember as being my Grand’s birthday at a little Italian place called Ricardo’s outside of my home town. We sat, we ate, and I fell head over heels in love with gnocchi. This was not something that we sat down to on a regular basis coming from a German, English and Irish background. I was delivered a cross between a bowl and a plate that was emitting one of the most glorious smells I have ever encountered. I was enamoured by these little pillow like things that were covered in a Gorgonzola cheese sauce, sort of an Italian classic or so I have learned. My mom made a face when I ordered; she is not a fan of that kind of cheese. I took my first bite and that was it... it was love. Everyone took a bite of my food. I was torn because I wanted my family to love this food too but I really didn’t want to share. The better part of my nature won out. It was after that I wanted; check that, I needed to know how to do it. How do you start off with potatoes, eggs and flour and end up with this glorious meal. I would find out how to do it. I researched every famous chef who cooked Italian food. I even checked out some non Italian chefs to see if they held the secret. Maybe it is an Italian grandmother thing but the best recipe and advice in making came from, surprise, an Italian grandmother. Her name is Lidia Matticchio Bastianich. She is kind of a big deal in the Italian food world. So here is my little twist on the Maestra’s recipe. It is the closest I have come to duplicating that meal and now I share it with you.

            Now just like the girl from Despicable Me, what we are aiming for is fluffy, yep so fluffy you’re gonna die. Now with Lidia’s sage words of wisdom, a couple of key things to ensure that your gnocchi is light and fluffy. The first thing is you are going to have to rice your potatoes. This can be accomplished a couple of ways, use a ricer or food mill. If you don’t have that, use your kitchen aid food grinder. If you don’t have that, force your cooked potatoes through the steamer part of a double boiler. The second thing is that your spuds need to be hot when you rice them. Then spread them out on a sheet pan to let them cool. This allows the moisture to escape and that is a good thing. It just works so just go with it. The last major thing you need to remember to do is as you are bringing your dough together don’t overwork it and use just as much flour as you need. The more you work the dough and the more flour you use the heavier your gnocchi will be. Keep all of these things in mind as we plunge forward.

            The other things that I must tell you are that you can top these little beauties with whatever you like, it doesn’t have to be the rich and wonderful gorgonzola sauce I have included. A nice tomato sauce works great or even just some butter and good parmesan cheese. They also freeze very well but you have to make sure that you freeze them spread out on a sheet pan before you package them into freezer bags. If you just toss them into a bag you will end up with a useless ball of potato dough. This is not what you want. Seeing as I am kind of doing a cover of Lidia I will suggest a cover for you to cook to, have fun with it.

Gnocchi in Gorgonzola Cheese Sauce to the tune of Love Song by Adele

The gnocchi part

5 large russet potatoes

2 eggs

2- 2 ½ cups of flour

-Boil your spuds until they give no resistance when poked with a fork. Pull them out of the water and peel. Use a kitchen towel to protect your finger because those little guys are hot. Rice them. Lay them out on a sheet pan and let them cool. You are looking at about 10-15 minutes.

-After they have cooled form a well and add your eggs and start to bring the dough together. Start adding your flour, a little at a time, and work the dough gently until it is no longer sticky and pasty. Do not over work the dough for the reasons I mentioned above.

-cut the dough into about six portions. Roll each portion into a rope about ½ an inch in diameter and then cut into bite sized portions. Using a fork press the dough over your thumb to create the ridge pattern that will hold on to the sauce.

-Boil them until they float. This should be really quick maybe 2 minutes or so. Add to your sauce; let it work for a couple of minutes and you are good to go.

The Saucy Part

¼ cup of butter

¼ cup of flour

1 cup of milk

Gorgonzola cheese, as much as you like really so that it fits your taste

-In a medium sauce pan melt your butter and then add your flour. Whisk until you have your roux. Add in your milk and whisk until smooth, no lumps. Add your cheese and whisk until it is fully incorporated. And that is the saucy part.

You can finish this dish with some chopped flat leaf parsley and you are good to go.