How to make gnocchi

Beatriz, author of To Be Gourmet, brings us the recipe to make gnocchi at home. Preparing them is very easy, and she also suggests a cheese sauce that goes wonderfully with them. Get your hands dirty!

Gnocchi (or gnocchi) are a classic of Italian cuisine, a cuisine that I love by the way and from which little by little I learn new recipes thanks to the wonderful book “La cuchara de plata”.

Making gnocchi at home is much easier than it may seem and if we use some kitchen tools to save time and effort it’s a breeze. I’ll also leave you the gnocchi recipe with Appenzeller cheese sauce, one of my favorites, although you can substitute it with any other flavorful cheese.

WMF Perfect pressure cooker, book La cuchara de plata, Le Creuset Damascus steel knives, Le Creuset skillet pan and Microplane Zester grater.

Ingredients

• 1 Kg of potatoes
• 400gr of flour
• 2 egg yolks
• Salt
• 400ml of cooking cream
• A good chunk of Appenzeller cheese
• A handful of walnuts
• Rosemary for garnish

KitchenAid Artisan food processor, Bérard wooden flour spoon and Le Creuset Damascus steel knives

Preparation

1. In the pressure cooker we cook the potatoes with their skin, in water and salt, for 7 minutes.
2. We let them cool, peel them and cut them into large pieces.
3. We put them inside the KitchenAid and with the paddle we mash them until we have a homogeneous puree. We start at low speed and gradually increase. If not available, they can be mashed with a fork or with a potato ricer.
4. We add the two egg yolks to the dough, a little salt, and half of the flour little by little while mixing at medium speed. When everything is integrated we switch to the dough hook accessory and select a medium/high speed.
5. We continue incorporating the flour while the mixer works, until we have a dough that doesn’t stick to our hands.
6. The previous two steps can be done by hand, forming a volcano with the potato dough and placing the yolks and salt inside. Then add the flour little by little while kneading.
7. Next we flour our hands, take a piece of dough and form a strip by rolling it against a floured surface, trying to keep it the same thickness along its length.
8. We make more strips and when we have finished with all the dough we cut them into pieces about 3 cms long.
9. We make a little ball with each of the pieces.
10. If we want to imprint those characteristic gnocchi marks we just press each one with the concave part of a fork, rolling it from one end of the tines to the other.
11. Gnocchi that we are not going to use can be frozen without problem, first spread out on a tray so they don’t stick, and then transferred to the container where we will store them.
12. We put water back in the pot, and add a tablespoon of salt per liter and leave it on the heat uncovered. When it starts to boil we add the gnocchi.
13. The moment they float we wait one minute and remove them.

For the sauce

1. In a frying pan; I used the Le Creuset Skillet, we heat the cream, while grating a good chunk of Appenzeller cheese with a good grater.
2. We add it to the cream and let it sit for a few minutes so it integrates well.
3. Lightly salt and add the gnocchi, depending on the number of people. This amount of sauce is for four.
4. We keep it on the heat for a couple of minutes and remove.
5. We add the shelled and chopped walnuts, a little more grated cheese, and garnish with some herbs.

Le Creuset Skillet Pan, Microplane Zester grater, Bérard wooden flour spoon, Le Creuset Damascus steel knives and KitchenAid Artisan food processor

A delicious recipe that kids also love, and that can be paired with a wide variety of sauces; vegetable, meat, seafood…. remember that gnocchi are basically potato, and that will give you the key to compose your own combinations.

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• For this recipe, Beatriz used the pressure cooker to boil the potatoes. The WMF Perfect pressure cooker is a great option. If you don't have a pressure cooker at home and you're considering buying one, I invite you to the pressure cooker section.
• The knives you see in the photos are beautiful, aren’t they? These are the Le Creuset knives, made with Damascus steel and an olive wood handle unique to each knife.
• The Le Creuset Skillet is one of my favorite skillets. Made of cast iron, versatile, beautiful, and with a lifetime warranty.

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