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Just four ingredients and a little time and love is all your need to make your own Gnocchi From Scratch!
Ok, I have an embarrassing confession to make: I had no idea what gnocchi was until I was 24 years old when I was living in a tiny town in the NW Piedmont region of Italy, working on a little organic farm, Cascina PiolainCapriglio, when I first had these little puff of potato bliss from heaven. Since then, Gnocchi From Scratch is one of my absolute favorite Italian dishes to make!
Ingredients Needed
Just four!
- Flour - All purpose works great but you could also use our favorite pasta flour, Tipo 00 Flour.
- Potatoes - Russet potatoes or yukon gold potatoes are the best for gnocchi because they have low moisture of a high starch.
- Salt - To season
- Egg - To help bind
You have everything you need already, don't you?
Easy to Make
Cook the Potatoes. Then let them cool completely.
Add egg and flour with salt. Again, make sure your potatoes are cool so they don't cook the egg. And start with just a little bit of flour at a time.
Mash. Until it's all nice and smooth.
Add last bit of flour. Once it's all comes together it'll still be pretty sticky so that's when I add the remaining 1/4 cup + of flour. Sometimes it'll still take a little more flour. You're looking for a 'dough' but one that's still a tad sticky.
It'll be soft (and shouldn't be clumpy at all), but again just a little sticky. You don't want to make the dough too dense with flour because that'll make your gnocchi more dumpling-like rather than little-puffs-of-potato-bliss-from-heaven-like.
Once you have your dough, you can take a small ball at a time and roll it into a long about 3/4 to 1 inch thick. You'll need lots of flour for this because the dough should be a little sticky still. Then, using a floured fork, you can cut off your little gnocchi bites!
So this gnocchi doesn't necessarily look exactly like those that you can buy pre-made in the store. If you want that more round ridged look there are gnocchi boards out there to roll the little potato puffs on to get the ridges. In my opinion, though… $16 for the ridges is not worth it. A fork works just fine!
And they're still super cute!
Mine aren't that round shape that you'd get with the added ridging, but again, bah. Why add another step between you and gnocchi eating?!
These guys are ready to be cooked as is or they can be put on a (well floured) baking sheet and frozen until you're ready to cook them! To cook, just bring a large pot of salted water to a boil, add about 8-10 gnocchi in at a time and let them cook for about 60-90 seconds (usually 90 if they're coming straight from the freezer). I usually add them to a hot saute pan too with whatever sauce I'm making for them, so I do a little less on the pot cooking because they'll keep cooking in the pan.
This particular batch made it into a pan with some sauteed garlic, chicken, and homemade basil pesto. I'd share that recipe, but, like my gnocchi recipe, my basil pesto recipe is one I still haven't written down... It changes every time I make it - one of these days I'll get it down! In the meantime, you could always make some Fennel Frond Pesto! Oooh that would be soo tasty with gnocchi, too! Whatever you mix them with, trust me, you need some homemade puffs of potato bliss from heaven in your life!
Happy Gnocchi making! 😀
Enjoy! As always, if you make this recipe or any of my others, I love to hear what you think! Leave a comment below, email me, or you can find me on Facebook, Instagram, and Pinterest!
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Gnocchi From Scratch
Homemade Puffs of Potato Bites from Heaven
5 from 13 votes
Print Pin Rate
Course: Main Course
Cuisine: Italian
Prep Time: 40 minutes minutes
Cook Time: 10 minutes minutes
Total Time: 50 minutes minutes
Author: Tracy
Ingredients
- 2 lbs of russet potatoes
- 1 large egg
- 1 teaspoon of kosher salt
- 3/4 cup + 1/4 cup possibly another 1/4 cup of flour + more for dusting
Instructions
Peel russet potatoes, cut into about 1 inch pieces and cook in boiling water for 10-15 minutes until they are very soft with the touch of a fork.
Drain potatoes in a colander and let them completely cool while they drain all the excess liquid. This is important so that they egg does not cook when it is added.
When cool, transfer to a large bowl and add the salt, egg, and 3/4 cup of the flour and mash it all together until the potatoes are smooth and there are no chunks.
Add the additional 1/4 cup and with your hands mix until a dough forms. It should be a soft dough but still a little bit sticky. Add more flour a little bit at a time if the dough completely sticks to your hands while you knead.
Flour a surface suitable for rolling and cutting gnocchi and take a palm sized ball from the dough and roll it into a long 1 inch log.
With a floured fork, cut 1 - 1 1/4 inch long pieces off of the log and place them on a well floured baking sheet.
Repeat for the rest of the dough. The dough will become stickier as you near the end of it, just add a little flour as needed to make it workable to roll into a log.
Cook immediately or store in freezer. Gnocchi can be frozen for up to 4-6 weeks*
To cook, bring a large pot of salted water to a boil. Add 8-10 gnocchi at a time and cook for 60 seconds or until they rise to the top. If adding sauce to cooked gnocchi, cook for another 30-60 seconds, but if adding to saute pan, remove after the 60 seconds or float with a slotted spoon.
Notes
*To freeze, place baking sheet with gnocchi on them for at least an hour. After an hour gnocchi can be transferred to zip lock bags.
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