Like I said I'm still working on my skills as a food blogger. The original recipe called for these to "float" in a tomato broth. It didn't sound like something that I would love, and I asked Holly what she thought of it, and said it wasn't her favorite, so I decided to pass. Instead I just made a pan roasted tomato "sauce".
Start with 2lb of potatoes - about 3-4. Bake them in a 400 degree oven for about 45 minutes - 1 hour, until a thin knife can easily pierce them!
While the potatoes are baking, get a skillet, sweat 2 cloves of minced garlic - mine "toasted" - in 2-3 tablespoons of olive oil.
Once the garlic has sweated, I quartered 1lb of Campari tomatoes - pre-salted - because tomatoes need salt, and placed them in the skillet. Turned the heat to low and let them reduce. I added some dried basil leaves, italian seasoning, s&p.
After an episode of Duck Dynasty, (don't judge me, it's a clean show, that's ridiculously funny, Jack) my potatoes were ready. I used four, but after I had peeled one of the potatoes I realized that I didn't have a picture of them yet (oh the travesty)!
To avoid burning your fingers, not saying I did..., make sure you let them cool - the recipe says about 10 minutes, maybe a few more. Once they are peeled - let them cool another 10 minutes, again maybe a few more.
(and look at that I have a picture of all 4 peeled potatoes!)
Now, if you own one of those fancy schmancy potato ricer - get it out, mark it down on your calendar - it's your once a year use! Or, for most people using the good ole $5 box grater works just as well. Use the large holes. Grate the potatoes into a bowl.
They will start to fall apart, which is expected to happen with a grater that's fine, I ended up placing the potato in the palm of my hand and just ran my hand over the grater, trying to get as much of the potato grated. Turned out pretty decent I'd have to say.
To the potatoes please add (because if you don't there will be major consequences) 1 large egg, and 1 tsp. table salt. I'm pretty well known for NOT using my measuring spoons. Palms work just as great for that!
Mix the two together, until combined and getting something that resembles mashed potatoes...wait, mixing baked, grated, potatoes together, is pretty much mashing.....nevermind.
Here's the part that made me question whether or not I had two lbs of potatoes. The recipe calls for 1 1/4- 1 1/2 cups of flour, but you just don't add 1 1/4 and then see if you need more. You are supposed to 1/2c.
Mix, then add 1/2 c., mixing again, and then add 1/4 cup and then see if this is enough to form a dough that does not stick to your hands. Honestly I thought that I had enough after the first 1/2 cup of flour. But knew that couldn't be right, so I added the 2nd 1/2 cup and didn't add anymore. I figured that the amount that it would be rolled out on the counter and make sure it was not sticking would be enough!
Knead it for a little bit to form a dough, then divide the dough into quarters. See pic below, in case you don't know what quarters are...:) And remember this, never assume the obvious!
So the next part was not as easy as I thought it would be, it wasn't terribly hard, just had to find my niche. Take one of the sections and roll it out into a long rope, about 3/4 in thick (I would probably make my less thick next time, and make sure it is more even - for a first time I was impressed)
Then take a nice sharp knife and cut the rope into 3/4 inch pieces. Make a rope out of all 4 of the sections until you have something that looks like this:
Tip: Make sure that the thickness of your rope is as even as you can make it, and that the pieces are all about the same size. This will really help to make sure that everything is cooked evenly. I found that when rolling the rope out, use the palms of your hand and then also start from the middle and work out. I'm sure that next time I do it, I will find something else that works, but for know that's the best I found!
Shoot, I hope that you are reading through this first and then making it, and not reading/making for the first time together, because you needed to have a pot with well salted water boiling. If you don't, no big deal, just crank the heat and salt well! Once the water is boiling drop some the pieces in the water until they float - about 2 mins - drain them once floating. DON'T dump your whole kettle of water out when draining, use a slotted spoon, because you have to cook the rest of them. I did about 1 ropes length at a time, I could have done more, but I rolled out each section while one was cooking.
Almost floating!
So, because I think that I'm a chef extraordinaire human, I do stupid things. I had been reading one of the many other blogs that frequent and saw that she had made toasted gnocchi with pesto (let it be know that's my next trial and error!) I didn't think that I should put the pieces in a pan without cooking them first. wrong. I tried to put them in a pan with some EVOO, to toasted after I had boiled them, they just ended up sticking to the pan (I didn't think of the starch content) even with oil. Unfortunately, I had to throw them away, but you will see with the pan below that there are parts that I had to scrape out and didn't get them all!
So back to this idea of toasting them. I thought that would be a great way to eat these. I love to have crunch to my food, so after I screwed up the already cooked ones. I put more EVOO in a pan, and put a handful of uncooked gnocchi in there with some salt and pepper and cooked them until they were brown on each side, about 5-6 minutes. Next time I will add a few more minutes.
This was a great idea until I realized that my sauce that I wanted to reduce, well it did just that, reduced to almost nothing! Here comes "what would be the best way to fix this without quickly cooking down some more tomatoes and not having access to any broth"
So, since I didn't really want to eat tomato skin I thought ok what can I do strain the sauce from the skin. I tried using a paper towel and squeezing the liquid out with hopes that all I would have left was the tomato skin. Note, if was at home I would have used my food processor and just processed it all together to get a sauce. Then I thought well I will get a strainer and strain it through there. Well that worked but, but I was left with was about 1/4 cup of sauce, not enough to coat anything.
I put the gnocchi in the pan to mix it all together and kind of re-heat it, because after my trial and errors they had cooled to room temp, and I wanted a nice hot dish!
After my trial and error I ended up dumping everything back in the pan and mixing it up and have it that way!
I wanted to have the toasted gnocchi in its own dish to try, but because of my lack of sauce they all were mixed in together. I'm not a saucy person (pun intended) and so it actually worked out that there wasn't a ton of sauce. I'm sure that if I had a food processor to run everything through and fresh parm it would have been perfect! But this is what I ended up with
For my first time I was very pleased with will be looking for more recipes that I put gnocchi in!
Oh I almost forgot, since I was only making the dish for me, I flash froze about half of them and have a batch that is waiting to be used. Just place them in the freezer on wax or parchment paper on a plate or pan and once they are frozen place them in a freezer bag to be used when you want! And you don't have to thaw them before cooking them in water, just place them in the boiling water or pan to toast and it will just take a few minutes longer to cook!
Click here for the recipe of this awesome potato dumpling like substance, trust me you won't regret it!
One of my next recipes is one for Sugar Biscuits! Can't wait for that one! Plus, I just love Pioneer Woman!
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