How to Make Potato Gnocchi

A simple tutorial and recipe for how to make potato gnocchi (potato dumplings).

Update:  3/20/16 pin-able image and minor editing

Gnocchi are delicious soft dumplings made of flour, eggs, and potatoes.  I'm focusing on potato gnocchi in this post but apparently they can also be made with ricotta, butternut squash, or other similar ingredients.

Gnocchi are delicious soft dumplings made of flour, eggs, and potatoes. [Tweet this]

Everything I know about potato gnocchi I learned from Italian Food Forever's How to make Potato Gnocchi.  It's a great step by step tutorial all about how to make gnocchi.  The main points I took away from this post were:  it's easier than most people think, bake instead of boil your potatoes, and don't use too much flour.  With these tips, I made potato gnocchi.  I loved it and so did my husband it was simple, inexpensive, and delicious.  There are many variations of gnocchi but for my first time, I kept it simple.  It turned out great so I'll definitely experiment with adding herbs and spices in the future and maybe even other main ingredients.  I want to try ricotta gnocchi some time too, but I think it's a good idea to start basic and get this recipe down before I start to experiment.

It's easier than you think, bake don't boil potatoes, & easy on the flour. [Tweet this]

Potato Gnocchi

Ingredients:

4 russet potatoes (about 2 cups of potato insides)
1 egg
1-1 1/2 cup(s) all-purpose flour
1/2 tsp salt

Start with baked potatoes and scrape out the insides.  Keep the potato skins for Loaded Baked Potato Skins.  You want about 2 cups of potato insides.

Squeeze the potato through your fingers, use a potato ricer, a fork, or a masher to break up the potato as finely as you can get it.

Place the potato mash in a medium bowl, add the salt, egg, and 1 cup of flour.  Stir briefly to combine then turn out onto a lightly floured surface.

Knead gently by hand adding the rest of the flour as needed until ingredients just come together and you have a smooth dough.  Don't overwork the dough and don't add too much flour.

Cut the dough in half (or more) and roll each half into a thick rope about the thickness of a thumb.  Thicker is fine you'll just have bigger gnocchi and if you get too thin the rope will break (so you will easily know if you are getting too thin).  Short ropes are easier to roll than long ropes but roll however you're comfortable.

Cut the rope into segments about the same size as the thickness of the rope.  The gnocchi are fine like this, but you can also indent them with your thumb against the tines of a fork to dimple and give them texture (great for holding sauce).

At this point, you can refrigerate the gnocchi until ready to cook, or I find it easier to freeze them (so they are more solid).  I use the gnocchi the same day I make them so I don't know how well they keep.

Drop the prepared gnocchi into boiling, lightly salted water and boil until they float.  Remove from the water and sauce as desired.  A simple garlic butter sauce is what I made (I'll post this next time) but a simple (tomato based) pasta sauce would be great, or a pesto, or a white wine sauce.

Makes about 2 servings (maybe more if you scrape out more potato insides or have really big potatoes)

Experiment and enjoy.

Other recipes mentioned in this post:

How to Make a Great Baked Potato	Loaded Baked Potato Skins	Simple Pasta Sauce  -----------------
White Wine Sauce and Shrimp Scampi	Spinach Pistachio Pesto

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Best of the Month February 2015

A recap of my most popular posts from February 2015.

This month (February) I added a most pinned widget to the header of my blog.  I must say, it's pretty cool.  Blogger doesn't have an already prepared widget so I had to look through Pinterest, find my most pinned pictures, then write the html for this widget.  I used many different websites to get instructions to put it together and whenever I had a question I just googled it.  I'm super excited about my results and it seems to be useful.  The goal is to keep visitors interested and on my site longer (once I get better with analytics I'll let you know if it's working).  Most importantly I love the way it looks and I'm proud I made it myself.

I'm still posting to link parties regularly and to google+, facebook, and twitter. I'm gaining followers on all platforms and my page views are increasing.  I'll never know everything about blogging, it changes so much, but I'm getting more familiar with many aspects.  Most importantly I'm still having fun.

Now on to the best of the month:

Last year's most viewed of February:

Baked Potato Salad

A potato salad side dish made with baked red potatoes, celery, and dill.  Now has 219 views and 44 +1s.

#Bestofthemonth February: Baked Potato Salad -Last years best of February via @joybeewhatsfor [Tweet this]

Now this February's most viewed:

How to Make a Great Baked Potato

Baked potatoes are a simple and tasty side to any meal. They can even be a great meal all on there own. 356 views and 21 +1s.

How to Make a Great #BakedPotato | #Bestofthemonth February via @joybeewhatsfor [Tweet this]

Herb Roasted Leg of Lamb

Delicious lamb leg roast seasoned with herbs and spices. Makes a great holiday, or romantic, dinner. 327 views and 37 +1s.

Herb Roasted Leg of Lamb | #bestofthemonth February via @joybeewhatsfor [Tweet this]

Meatball Calzones

Hot gooey cheese and meatballs folded inside a soft and chewy pizza crust. 300 views and 70 +1s.

#Meatball #Calzones | #bestofthemonth February via @joybeewhatsfor [Tweet this]

Lamb Salad

 

A green salad topped with leftover Herb Roasted Leg of Lamb, olives, tomatoes, and feta. 290 views and 39 +1s.

#Lamb #Salad | #bestofthemonth February via @joybeewhatsfor [Tweet this]

Rye Yeast Rolls

Soft and fluffy yeast rolls made with rye flour, onions, and caraway seeds. 289 views and 56 +1s.

#Rye #YeastRolls | #bestofthemonth February via @joybeewhatsfor [Tweet this]

Check out last year's best of February:

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How to Make a Great Baked Potato

Baked potatoes are a simple and tasty side to any meal.  They can even be a great meal all on there own.  

I wasn't always a big fan of baked potatoes.  When I had them I would load them with 'fixings' and only eat the insides.  Everyone would tell me that the skin had the most nutrients in it, but it never tasted good.  However, when at a restaurant I would love the baked potatoes with salty, chewy skin and I would gobble up the whole thing.  For the longest time I could not duplicate this at home until, finally, I found the secret (I searched how to bake a potato online and found great instructions). Here are the steps I follow to make a great baked potato.

First it is important to thoroughly rinse and scrub your russet potato.  With these simple steps the potato skin turns out delicious and you won't want to waste it.

Then you will pierce the potato all over with a sharp knife or a fork (about 10 times, a couple of centimeters deep).  I use a sharp knife just because it is easier for me to insert and remove.

Next pour about 1 Tbsp of olive oil over the potato and rub/massage the oil all over the potato.

Sprinkle on about 1 tsp coarse sea salt or kosher salt and rub it in.  Not all of the salt and oil will adhere to the potato but some of it should. You can adjust the oil and salt to suit your tastes.

Bake in a 350 degree oven (right on the rack) for 45 minutes to 1 hour, until soft.

Depending on the size of the potato it may take longer (you can bake sweet potatoes the same way).  I usually only bake 2 potatoes so I use a toaster oven, but I think that baking is very important.  I know a microwave is quick, but once you try a potato this way you won't want to go back.  The skin is lightly salty and has a great texture.  I kind of want to try this, sometime, with butter instead of oil, I don't know how it would turn out but I am curious.

Enjoy.

Other posts with baked potatoes:  Loaded Potato Skins, Herb Roasted Pork Tenderloin (baked sweet potato), Twice Baked Potatoes

Original post 12/24/12 (50 views and 2 pins) re-posted with new pictures and minor editing.

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Loaded Baked Potato Skins

Warm potato skins loaded with cheese, bacon, sour cream, and green onions.  A delicious gameday snack.

The first College Football Playoff National Championship is tonight (this afternoon for us in Hawaii) so I thought I'd share a football snack.  These Potato skins really hit the spot.  They are slightly salty and crisp baked potato skins loaded with all my favorite toppings.  These skins are baked and not fried so they don't get as crisp as the deep fried kind you can get at restaurants but they are delicious and easy to make.

Declicious #bakednotfried Loaded Baked #PotatoSkins  [Tweet this]

First off you need to start with great baked potatoes and I have a trick that makes them awesome.  You rub the potatoes with olive oil and sea salt before baking them (it's super simple but makes a huge difference).  Click the link for more details.  Then cut into wedges and slightly hollow each wedge.  Now you have the base potato skin.  Don't throw away the potato insides.  I saved them to make Gnocchi (I'll post that recipe eventually) or add them with some eggs and sausage/bacon to make a breakfast hash...there are plenty of things you can make with it.

Start with great #bakedpotatos for Loaded Baked Potato Skins  [Tweet this]

Loaded Baked Potato Skins

Ingredients:

4 baked russet potatoes, cooled (even refrigerated over night would be fine I think)
Shredded cheddar cheese
Bacon, cooked and chopped
Sour cream
Green onions, sliced

Cut each baked potato into wedges.  I had medium to small potatoes so I cut them into quarters (cut in half long ways then cut each half in half again--longways) if you have really big potatoes you may be able to get more.

Carefully scoop out, you don't want to tear the skins, all but about 1/4-1/2 inch of the potato insides making the wedges concave so they can hold toppings.  At this point I refrigerated them to make the next day (or just make them the same day) but I bet you could freeze them laid out on a sheet pan for about 1-2 hours then store in a freezer bag until you want to use them too.

Lay out the skins, skin side down, on a baking sheet.  Sprinkle on as much cheese as you like and bake at 400 F for about 10-15 minutes.  Then switch to broil and broil for a little while until cheese is well melted.

Remove skins from oven and top with bacon bits, a dollop of sour cream, and some green onions.
(alternatively just use a dollop of Loaded Baked Potato Dip on top of the re-baked skins)

Serve immediately.  Makes about 12 skins which was fine for 2 people but we would have liked even more...they're delicious.

Enjoy.

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