How to Make Gnocchi

Potatoes are one of those harvests that are both incredibly easy to preserve, but also strangely difficult. If all you want to do is store the potatoes, then that’s super easy. In a cool, dry, dark place, they can last through much of the winter. We usually harvest in late September or early October, and they’re fine in a dark room in the basement until February at least. Once they start to grow eyes, we boil and mash them (without added dairy) and freeze these in bags. They’re not great when thawed and reheated (and loaded with dairy) but they’re great for topping a pot pie or shepherd’s pie.

It’s also possible to can potatoes and I’ve done that before. I’m also looking at canning french fries—in other words, canning potatoes cut in fry shapes—as they apparently crisp up perfectly when the jar is opened and the potatoes cooked. I’ve never ventured into dehydrating potatoes, but that has caught my eye before and I may try one day.

The one thing I’ve always wanted to tackle was making gnocchi, which is a potato-based pasta (technically more of a dumpling). The store-bought stuff holds together well and freezes well too. A couple years ago I tried making a batch and it got so soft they disintegrated when I tried boiling them, and freezing them just made a clump of potato that then disintegrated when boiled.

But I’m not the type to give up easily. So, in order to prep for the potato harvest, I did some research, called my bestie up on Zoom, and together we banged out a batch of gnocchi that turned out superb, and we even tried freezing some of it to cook it from frozen and see what happens—and we succeeded there too. I won’t rush to make gnocchi the minute the potatoes are out of the ground this fall, as there are more pressing projects, but once early winter rolls around and there’s little to do in terms of food preserving.

Homemade vs store-bought gnocchi

One important distinction to make is that homemade gnocchi, at least when uncooked, is very delicate compared to store-bought gnocchi. The store-bought variety is a lot denser and sturdier and holds up well in recipes where you add uncooked gnocchi directly to a pan of sauce and other ingredients. Once cooked, homemade gnocchi holds up fairly well. We boiled our very gentle gnocchi and then once cooked added them to a pan with sauce and other ingredients.

Egg or no egg?

In researching recipes and trying to determine where my previous attempts went wrong, it appears it may have to do with the egg. Some gnocchi recipes just use potato and flour, some add a whole egg, and some add just an egg yolk. We decided to go with the egg yolk and considering this was a success on the first try whereas all other attempts were failures, the egg seems to make a difference.

How to make homemade gnocchi

First you’ll want to gather your ingredients and equipment:

• 1 lb potatoes
  • Different sites recommend different potatoes. I made these with yellow potatoes / Yukon Gold.
• 1 egg yolk
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 85 g all-purpose flour, plus extra on hand to dust the counter and optional gnocchi board
• Semolina or rice flour for dusting
  • I happened to have rice flour on hand, so this is what I used
• Potato ricer, food mill, or potato masher
• Gnocchi board (optional)

Step one: Prepare the potatoes

Leaving the skin on and not cutting them up, boil whole potatoes for 25 minutes or until tender when poked with a knife or fork. If you have larger or smaller potatoes, the time may be longer or shorter.

One of the keys to gnocchi is to not let things get too wet, so keeping the skin on keeps a lot of water out.

When cooked, drain and let cool slightly until they are still warm but safe to handle. Pull the skins off; the skins should slip off fairly easily, but you may need a paring knife or peeler to remove some skin.

Press the potatoes through a potato ricer or food mill into a bowl. If all you have is a potato masher, mash until they are smooth. Do not use a blender, immersion blender, or food processor as that may overwork the potatoes.

Step two: Make the dough

Create a well in the middle of the potatoes. In the well, add the egg yolk, salt, and some of the flour.

Work it all together with a fork, adding more flour as you go.

Once all the flour is in and it starts to come together like a dough, stop using a fork and switch to using your hands. Squish it together to form a big ball. Since this isn’t actually dough, you don’t need to knead it or work it. The dough will feel sticky and that’s okay, that’s what you want. If it’s excessively sticky, sprinkle on a little more flour, but you’re not going for the “tacky but not sticky” feel you want with bread dough.

Let the gnocchi dough rest for 5-10 minutes.

Step three: Make the gnocchi

Separate the ball into four smaller balls. Working with one ball at a time, roll it out into a log approximately a foot long. Cut across each log several times, creating individual pieces that are about half an inch long. These pieces can be transferred as they are to a pan dusted with semolina or rice flour.

However, gnocchi traditionally has ridges and these ridges trap sauce better. Using a ridged gnocchi board or the back of a fork, press one piece at a time into the ridges with your thumb, then slide your thumb down—this will create the ridges and the curled shape of gnocchi. Afterward, pieces can be transferred to a pan dusted with semolina or rice flour.

Step four: Store or cook gnocchi

Gnocchi can be frozen for a few months. To do so, place the entire pan of gnocchi into the freezer so the gnocchi freeze without sticking to each other. When frozen, transfer to a ziplock bag

To cook gnocchi, boil a pot of salted water. When at a full boil, gently drop batches of gnocchi into the pot. When they float, they’re cooked. This may take about a minute when cooking fresh gnocchi. If cooking frozen gnocchi, do not thaw first—drop frozen gnocchi into the pot and cook until they float, which may take up to three minutes.

Top cooked gnocchi with sauce, if desired, and serve immediately.