• Choose a category
• All
• Classic-Fiction

By Root 404 0

and sauce by draining the pasta and cooking it in the sauce for a couple minutes, until the sauce hugs the pasta. It’s a good idea to always reserve a little of your pasta cooking water; you never know when you’re going to need to loosen up your sauce, and this is the way to do it. As the pasta and sauce cook, give them a sprinkey-dink of grated Parm, a drizzle of big fat finishing oil, and stir or toss VIGOROUSLY. This is the glue that holds the marriage of the pasta and sauce together—they should cling to one another! Serve the pasta immediately, and know that proper etiquette is to start eating right away—don’t wait for everyone to be served.

SERVES: 10 TO 12 • TIME: ABOUT 3 HOURS, MOSTLY UNATTENDED

I’ve had a lot of bad gnocchi in my life. You know the kind I’m talking about: You eat three and suddenly your belly expands and you feel like balls of bread dough are rising in there. Gnocchi should be light and airy, like clouds! Over time I’ve perfected the secrets to great gnocchi and if you follow this recipe, even as a beginner, you will be successful EVERY time.

MISE EN PLACE

5 large Idaho potatoes

2 large eggs

¾ cup freshly grated Parmigiano, plus extra for garnish

Kosher salt

2 to 3 cups all-purpose flour (depending on humidity, this will range)

Big fat finishing oil

1 Preheat the oven to 375°F.

2 Put the potatoes on a baking sheet and cook until fork-tender, 45 minutes to 1 hour—check them along the way.

3 Line a rimmed baking sheet with parchment paper. While the potatoes are still hot, peel and pass them through a food mill or ricer, distributing them in a thin, even layer onto the baking sheet (personally I find that a food mill works better than a ricer because it’s easier to handle). Keep the layer as light and fluffy as possible as you do this to help keep the gnocchi light. When they’re thoroughly riced, put the baking sheet in the fridge and cool the potatoes completely. (If the potatoes are warm when you add the flour, they’ll absorb more flour, leading to heavier gnocchi.)

4 When the potatoes are totally cold, dump them out on a clean work surface. In a small bowl, beat the eggs and cheese together and pour this mixture over the potatoes; season with salt.

5 Cover everything generously with flour—it should look like snow on the mountains—and crumble the potato-flour mixture between your fingers, kneading the dough until it’s a homogeneous mixture. The dough should feel slightly moist, but not tacky. If it’s too tacky, repeat the snow-on-the-mountains stage.

6 Form the dough into a large log. Cut 1-inch slices off the log and roll them into long ropes about ¾ inch thick. Cut the ropes into ½-inch lengths and cover generously with flour. Dust a baking sheet with flour and place the gnocchi on it in a single layer. (Do not even THINK of piling them on top of each other!)

7 Use or freeze the gnocchi immediately. (If freezing, put the baking sheet directly in the freezer. Once frozen, the gnocchi can be put in plastic bags and stored indefinitely. Frozen gnocchi can go directly from the freezer into salted boiling water.) When ready to cook, bring a large pot of well-salted water to a boil. Add the gnocchi and cook until they float to the top of the pot and get nice and puffy. Scoop the gnocchi out of the water, toss with whatever sauce you like, and finish with a little big fat finishing oil and grated Parm.

Gnocchi-dokee!

To make great gnocchi, remember these two secrets: When passing the potatoes through the food mill, keep them as light and fluffy as possible; don’t let them get packed down. Also, it is a general practice to take gnocchi out of the water as soon as they float—BIG MISTAKE! Gnocchi need to be cooked in boiling water until they float and get nice and puffy. Don’t be fooled; undercooking will result in heavy gnocchi.

SERVES: 4 TO 6 • TIME: ABOUT 1 HOUR

When I was working in Tuscany during porcini season I always wanted to go foraging for mushrooms, but the Italians are so secretive about where they find their prized porcini that I could never convince anyone