Marco’s nonna’s gnocchi

Photographer: Emma
Serves 6

I feel very lucky to be sharing this recipe with you all as it comes to us straight from Italy, from a real Italian Nonna (grandma). Marco, one of our engineers here at F&P, kindly sent message back to his home town in the hope that his Nonna would share with us her gnocchi recipe. Luckily for us she did. Over to Marco:

“There is something so satisfying about creating a big heart-warming and nourishing meal from few ingredients. In Italy, we are particularly good at this and my Nonna has mastered this art.

I have many fond memories of watching her enthusiastically push and fold the dough. Then with an easy ‘flick’ of a fork across tiny cut pieces, she had created Gnocchi. A dish I have replicated myself since moving to New Zealand, but the smell of the flour, water and mashed potatoes coming together transports me right back to my Nonna’s kitchen.

During more difficult economic times in history, Italians learned to create meals that would fill the belly but at minimal expense and gnocchi is a perfect example. You could say it’s the perfect dish. Here is the Nonna Rina’s recipe”.

INGREDIENTS

Gnocchi
750g potatoes (tip: not every type of potato is good for gnocchi. Choose one which is yellow inside and red outside as their water content is lower)
350g tipo 00 flour
1 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
1 egg yolk

Blue cheese sauce
100g ricotta
100g cream cheese
100g blue cheese
1/2 cup milk


basil
parmesan cheese
salt and cracked black pepper
extra olive oil

METHOD

Gnocchi
1. Peel the potatoes, cut them into eighths and boil until soft. Drain and push through a potato ricer, or alternatively mash the potato being sure to work out all lumps. Add the egg yolk, the oil and little by little the flour. Knead together to form a dough.
2. Flour the bench, pull off a piece of dough and roll it with your hands to form a long “rope” (or thin sausage), about 2cm in diameter. Cut this rope into 2cm pieces.
3. Using a fork, roll each piece of gnocchi with your thumb on the concave part of the fork. You will end up with wee gnocchi having 3 stripes on one side and on the other, a little cavity made by your thumb.
4. Generously flour a baking tray or large platter and arrange the gnocchi on this surface making sure each piece does not touch the next.
5. Bring a large pot of salted water to the boil and throw in the gnocchi. Once the gnocchi float to the top then they are ready.

Blue cheese sauce
1. Combine the 3 soft cheeses in a pot or small frying pan and melt together over a low heat. Add the milk and mix to form a smooth sauce. Add more milk if a thinner consistency is desired.

To serve
1. Add the cooked gnocchi to the blue cheese sauce and mix well to coat each piece. Serve sprinkled with parmesan cheese, salt and pepper, torn basil leaves and a glug of good olive oil.