Homemade Gnocchi

Recently I had a week off work and figured it would be a good time to make some foodie items that I could freeze - mainly PASTA. I found this great website that provided a gnocchi recipe and amazing photos - check it out here and this is what I based my recipe on below. 

What you will need: 
1kg starchy potatoes (e.g. russet), unpeeled

300g / 1½ Cups Plain Flour
2 Egg Yolks
1 Tablespoon Extra Virgin Olive OilSalt

Ingredients

Wash your unpeeled potatoes to get rid of any dirt. 

Potatoes

Boil your potatoes until tender (for small potatoes this will take about 10–15 minutes to boil; medium potatoes about 20–25 minutes; and large potatoes 35–45 minutes). Avoid piercing them to check they are tender as water and gnocchi are not a good match. Boil an 
extra potato that can be your tester. 

Once the potatoes are cooked, let them cool and then peel the skins of gently. 

Boiled & Peeled Potatoes

Mash them into a large bowl with either a potato ricer, or if like me you don't have one of those, a fork. You want the mash to be as lump-free as possible. Allow mash to cool to room temperature.

Mashed potatoes

Mix the flour and salt together in a small bowl. Mix the egg yolks and olive oil into the mash potato. 

Add yolks and salt

Sprinkle the flour over the potatoes and mix gently until the flour is moistened and the dough looks crumbly.  

Add flour

Crumbly texture

On a lightly floured surface, knead the potato dough gently to incorporate the flour. Press on the dough with your hands and then fold it in half, turn it and repeat. Knead for about 1 minute. Your dough should now be soft and smooth. If sticking occurs, sprinkle a little more flour to your work surface. Be careful, you don't want to add too much extra flour as 
it will harden the dough. Place your dough in a bowl and cover with a kitchen towel.   

Potato dough

You will need a clean work surface for the next bit so make sure any excess sticky dough etc has been cleaned away and the bench is completely dry. Sprinkle the surface with a little bit of flour. Tear of a lemon sized piece of dough and roll into a rope. Use a knife to cut out square bites (the size will depend on how big you want your gnocchi to be). To finish off you can either leave the gnocchi pillows as is or indent them with a fork to give them 
texture. 

Cut Gnocchi

Arrange your gnocchi in a single layer on baking sheets, making sure they don't touch. To freeze place the gnocchi on the baking sheets into the freezer. When hard, transfer to freezer bags or an airtight container. Smart idea is to portion them out into freezer bags so 
you don't defrost too much. 

My  homemade Gnocchi

To cook gnocchi bring a salted pot of water to the boil and place the gnocchi in the water. When they rise to the surface they are cooked, this can take a few minutes. Use a slotted spoon to fish them out of the water and serve with your favourite sauce. Goes well with pesto and burnt butter sauces. 

Do you have a favourite sauce to match your gnocchi? 

Like my Facebook page here for more updates and photos.