Potato gnocchi: as little flour as possible, potatoes baked, not boiled
Light gnocchi come down to one decision made at the start: bake the potatoes instead of boiling them. A baked potato absorbs no water, so a kilo of potatoes needs only about two hundred grams of flour, and it is the flour that decides whether the dumplings are pillowy or rubbery. The dough is kneaded for thirty seconds, shaped on a fork and boiled for two minutes. Then browned butter with sage, and nothing else.
Your own work in that: 50 min.
- Potatoes baking 60 min
- Dough 15 min
- Shaping 25 min
- Boiling and sauce 10 min
Step by step
0 / 8 doneBake the potatoes in their skins
Heat the oven to 200 °C. Scrub the potatoes, dry them, prick with a fork and set directly on the oven rack. Bake 60 minutes, until a knife slides in without resistance and the skins are wrinkled.
Ingredients: 1000 g floury potatoes · 220 g plain flour · 1 pcs egg yolk · 1 tsp salt · 1 pinch nutmeg · 1 tbsp salt for the water
TipA boiled potato is wetter, and that moisture then has to be bound with flour. A baked one loses some of its water, so the dough needs noticeably less flour. This is the single most important decision in the recipe.
An hour at 200 °C, skins wrinkledRice them hot, then cool
Halve the potatoes and scoop the hot flesh straight from the skins into a ricer. Press onto the counter and spread into a loose layer. Leave 10 minutes for the steam to escape. The dough is made with the potato lukewarm, not cold.
TipRice while hot: a cooled potato goes through the ricer with difficulty, and forced through it turns gluey. A spread-out layer releases steam; a heap traps it and adds moisture back.
Riced hot, spread out to steam offKnead for thirty seconds
Sprinkle the potato with the salt and nutmeg, add 180 g of the flour and drop the yolk into the centre. Gather from the edges with a scraper, then knead with your hands for 30 seconds into one ball. The dough should be soft and slightly tacky. Sticking badly? Add flour a spoon at a time, up to 40 g more.
TipEvery extra spoon of flour and every extra ten seconds of kneading develops gluten, which turns pillowy dumplings into rubber. A tacky dough that is awkward to handle makes better gnocchi than a comfortable one carrying too much flour.
Thirty seconds, not a moment moreCook one test gnoccho
Bring a wide pot of water with a tablespoon of salt to the boil. Pinch off a piece of dough, shape a dumpling and drop it in. If it holds its shape after floating, the dough is ready. If it falls apart, work in another spoon of flour and test again.
One dumpling decides the whole batchRoll ropes and cut
Divide the dough into 6. Roll each piece under your palms on a floured counter into a rope 2 cm thick and cut it with a scraper into 2 cm pieces. Roll each piece down the back of a fork with your thumb: ridges form on one side, a hollow on the other.
Ridges on one side, a hollow on the otherBoil in batches, two minutes
Bring the water from the test back to the boil and lower it to a gentle simmer. Add a third of the gnocchi. They rise after 90 seconds; from that moment cook another 30 seconds and lift them out with a slotted spoon onto a warm plate. Cook the other two batches the same way (about 8 minutes in all). A rolling boil breaks gnocchi apart, so the water should barely tremble.
They float at 90 seconds, then 30 moreBrown the butter with sage
Melt the butter in a large pan and cook over medium heat 3 minutes, until the foam subsides and the solids on the base turn hazelnut brown and smell nutty. Add the sage leaves and fry 30 seconds until crisp. Add the gnocchi with a spoon of cooking water and toss 1 minute.
Ingredients: 80 g butter · 10 pcs fresh sage leaves · 60 g parmesan · ½ tsp black pepper
TipBrown butter is not burnt butter: it is the milk solids going through the Maillard reaction at around 150 °C and giving a nutty aroma. Dark brown solids with a bitter smell mean you went half a minute too far.
Hazelnut-brown solids, crisp sageServe
Spoon onto warmed plates, finish with parmesan and pepper. Uncooked gnocchi freeze on a tray in a single layer, then go into a bag; boil from frozen for 3 minutes.
Parmesan, pepper, straight from the pan
Before you start
With tomato sauce
Instead of butter, a simple passata sauce simmered 15 minutes with garlic and basil. Toss the gnocchi in the sauce in the pan with a spoon of cooking water.
Baked
Put the boiled gnocchi in a dish, pour over cream with gorgonzola and bake 15 minutes at 200 °C. The version for a cold evening.
They fell apart
Too much water in the potatoes or too little flour. Save the rest of the batch by working in another 30 g of flour and cook in barely trembling water, never at a boil.
