‘Come on chef, you don’t just rip your girls pants off do you! you need to treat her like a princess, same thing with food, you need to show love when your handling food if you want it to work’ chirped chef Bill after I had savaged another job! ‘Thanks for the relationship advice bill’ I thought to myself. I surely didn’t expect to hear that, but he was right. Although sometimes dependent on the girl and her mood though when the situation arises!
‘We can do it but it is going to be trouble’ is usually my reaction when I’m asked if I can make gnocchi at work. That response is based on staffing issues or a chefs ability to show love to his craft, as our good friend gnocchi needs to be treated like a princess and the ladies sure do love a good gnocchi!
The mighty potato dumpling, or gnocchi as it is commonly referred to, is one popular dozzie of a dish, particularly with the ladies. Yet for those that know how to knock out a batch of fresh gnocchi, we are well aware of the difficulty involved in making these bad boys from scratch.
To much flour and they’ll taste like play dough, not enough flour and egg and they’ll just disintegrate when you blanch them.
Nearly every time I’ve felt the urge to impress a lady, they are at the top of the list of things that I’m confident will get me some cuddle time once dessert is over and the empty bottle of wine is in the recycling bin!
The mighty spud is such a versatile unit and comes in many different varieties, consisting of waxy and starchy contents. Some are higher and lower in these main elements, yet they are the main ones that you are aware will alter your end product! Gnocchi is definitely not one of my personal favorites, but I never bust out in the kitchen at home just for myself, unless its baked beans on toast or snags, chips and eggs!
I’ve rolled potato, spinach and ricotta varieties, as well as semolina gnocchi nuggets, yet the potato variety is truly the most popular variation that does the rounds!
Here are some rough ingredient amounts-
2kg starchy potatoes
3 egg yolks
3 eggs
300g plain flour
200g grated parmesan cheese
salt and pepper
To boil or dry roast is generally the question at hand when plotting how to soften your wax and starch based dumplings and the dry roast does it for mine!
One does not want these nuggets to be soggy, so slow and dry roasting on a bed of rock salt is the way to go in my book. The salt and dry heat subtley breaks down your spud without making it to soggy and wet, which can be an issue if you boil your potatos when making gnocchi. You need to keep the skins on and one needs to give them a rub under water to clean the dirt off, then slide them in on your salt at about 140c for about an hour or so, dependent on size until they’re crusty on the outside and fluffy on the inside. The outer crust should be hard to break once cooked through, but once your in, you choice of skewer should easily glide strait in and out!
Once you’ve gotten your Solaniam tuber-sums (potato) softened, allow the jacket potatoes to cool for half an hour or so until you can just handle them, then peel the outer crust away and slide the fluffy insides into a bowl.
In most kitchens there’s a standard for getting any kind of mash as soft and silky as possible, yet I’ve always enjoyed my gnocchi or mash even, with a bit of texture! I like texture, so I like to crush them up just enough so your end product is gonna bind without losing all of your potatoes naturally cooked texture!
One of the most important things to remember when cooking potatoes is that with all things waxy, your baked potato fluff doesn’t like to play if you let it cool down completely. All the naturally present wax in there won’t let you do your thing if it’s completely cooled. If you’ve ever tried to mash your cold, boiled potatoes you’ll know what I mean. It turns out sorta like the flour and water crap your parents or siblings would flog off to you as glue when you were growing up! ‘Your mash is gluey chef, bin it and start over’ we like to say when you make that mistake in a kitchen!
When I have all my fluffy potato pressed into a bowl, throw a LARGE pot on to boil, then whack some eggs, flour, gratted Parmesan, salt and pepper into the potato mix. Make sure your potatoes are not too hot or you’ll cook the eggs before you can mix them in. Then gently mix your ingredients until the dough like mass is just touchable without sticking to much. Add a bit more flour if needed.
The next step is the most important. Once your water is boiling, you need to drop a pre-rolled piece in first to make sure it will hold its mass, but only just! There is such a fine line here, it’s truly challenging and even more enjoyable getting this part on point! Once you’ve allowed your gnocchi nugget to come to the float, let it simmer for 3 minutes, then remove from the water using a holed spoon.
If your potato dumpling breaks down in the strainer, add a little more flour and repeat the process. If you do this more than once, add a little more egg, as nobody wants the Gumby textured gnocchi too much flour will give you.
Once you’ve got your desired texture sorted, roll your dough in long, snake like logs, roughly 1 inch in diameter! Then cut them into one inch long pieces! You can even press them with a fork to get that ridged look going if thats your thang!
Blanch them off in batches, remembering that blanching needs to happen with a ratio of 10 parts water to 1 part product, or gnocchi in this case.
Place them into a strainer once cooked and drizzle with olive oil to prevent them sticking together.
I knocked out a batch for my baby Mumma and son and we went down the semi Italian path of seared scallops, braised onion, semi dried tomatoes, sugar snap peas and pistachios, with a lovely nut butter sauce! Once my pan love was ready, I just tossed through my desired amount of gnocchi and I was away. I got some pre-cooked Peking pork for my protein content, as well as some Chevre(goats) Cheese to trickle over at the end. Over all, it was pretty good for a home job!
The Roman legions originally prepared and ate the semolina variation around Europe back they were expanding their empire, yet the more recently introduced variation is my choice of gnocchi foundation. You could nearly build gnocchi from any sort of root vegetable or cheese, all you need to do is play with your flour and egg content. Us humanoids have been playing with gnocchi for over two thousand years, why stop now!
When I kicked off in kitchens there was always a big emphasis on food and love or even sex which attracted me to it the industry. Mainly from the lack of love shown from where I had grown up and come from as a child, yet a shift in where that love is focused has surely changed!
The love I was taught was in the process of cooking and the bonds built with those you grinded with. A lot these days, in my experience anyways, put that emphasis on food looking sexy and how much you work, as opposed to the process of making and creating tasty food.
Yet as were all well aware, there’s is nothing more disappointing than when the wrapping is better than the package inside!
Tales of a Tassie Chef 