This is my favourite way to make gnocchi. You only need two ingredients; potato and flour – and what’s really wonderful about this recipe is that it’s incredibly easy to scale and adjust because the amount of flour you use depends on the weight of cooked potatoes that you have to work with.

This kind of gnocchi is perfect simply boiled and added directly to your sauce. They’re incredibly light and fluffy – cloud-like, if you will. Not to mention they’re simple to make with minimal mixing, kneading and shaping. Personally I like to serve these lisce or smooth, but of course you can roll them along the back of a fork or gnocchi board to create ridges if you please.

Ingredients

1.2 kg potatoes the variety does matter I like to go with a semi-starchy potato that work well for mashing, like Yukon Gold or Désirée, or alternatively a starchy spud like King Edward or Russet.
Tipo 00 flour the amount will depend on the cooked weight of the potato see recipe for details

Instructions

Preheat an oven to 180c/350f
Place the potatoes on a baking sheet and do nothing to them. Once the oven is preheated, bake for 70 minutes or until very fork tender.
Carefully cut the potatoes in half to aid the release of any steam as they cool, and when cool enough to handle scoop the flesh out from the skins into a bowl set on scales so you measure what the cooked weight of the potatoes are.
If using a semi-starchy potato, measure 1/4 of the potato weight of tipo 00 flour (e.g. if your cooked potatoes weigh 800g, measure 200g tipo 00 flour). If you are using a very starchy potato, consider adding up to 1/3 of the potato weight in tipo 00 flour.
Pass the potatoes through a ricer and spread out on your work surface – a wooden board is great if you have one as it’ll continue to absorb extra moisture from the potatoes.
Sprinkle over the flour and use a bench scraper to cut it into the potato. Continue to do this around all sides until you have a crumbly, sand-like mix.
Start bringing the crumbly potato dough together with your hands as gently as possible so as not to overwork the gluten – it doesn’t need to be perfectly smooth like a pasta dough – and we certainly don’t want to knead the dough.
Once you have formed a ball, divide this into 8 equal parts and roll each out to a long and thick sausage – again, make sure to use a gentle touch.
Dust in flour and use a knife to cut thumb-sized pieces.
Dust in more flour and gently toss the gnocchi around to coat evenly.
Set aside on a baking tray lined with a clean tea towel or lightly dusted with flour until ready for use.
Bring a large pot of generously salted water to a gentle boil (this is important) – and cook the gnocchi in small batches. Keep your eye on them for as soon as they float, they are done. Use a slotted spoon to collect floating gnocchi and transfer them directly to your chosen sauce.

Notes

NB: gnocchi is best when prepared and cooked same day, I don’t recommend trying to store this in either the fridge or freezer as the dough can become oxidised and mushy/gummy.

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Gnocchi di patate