ReadyMade: Instructions for everyday life

Hi, ReadyMade world! We are Jonny and Amy from We Are Never Full and we’re super excited to be blogging on ReadyMade. We look forward to making you hungry and thirsty (no matter what time of the day) by bringing you posts on all things delicious—both food and drink. We hope you like it!

Dumplings are among the world’s most ancient dishes. The original comfort food, if you will. They are also one of the most common. Think of any kind of cuisine and the likelihood is that it will feature dumplings in some form or another. Chinese, Russian, German, Scandinavian, Japanese, British, Polish, French, even Venezuelan culinary traditions all have their own versions, and even those cuisines that don’t appear to favor dumplings have something similar. However, in spite of this diversity, there seems to be a common perception of dumplings as leaden calorie-bombs that sit heavily in your gut before padding your mid-section like a down jacket.

This is slightly unfair because not all dumplings are created equal. Some, indeed, are dense and filling, but others are light and ethereal, more like clouds than pillows. You might be forgiven for thinking that gnocchi, meaning “lumps” in Italian, should fall into the former camp, but that is not necessarily the case. In the two milennia or so that the Italians have been making them, the original flour, water and egg dumpling has morphed into several styles, including dense and light.

Read on for two from-scratch gnocchi recipes (potato gnocchi and ricotta gnocchi), and two sauces.

Perhaps the most common of these are gnocchi di patate, or potato gnocchi, and gnocchi di ricotta (with ricotta cheese), but gnocchi di pane (with breadcrumbs) and gnocchi alla romana (with polenta) can also be found on many menus in Italy and here in the United States. Typical accompaniments are a pesto, fresh tomato or brown butter sauce, though gnocchi are so versatile and friendly, they can also be found with robust meat sauces, in tiny form, in brodo—adding depth to light soups, and helping old ladies cross the street.

Making gnocchi at home is similarly congenial. Certainly, it’s a messy business, but it’s also easy and a lot of fun, and perfect for getting kids to help out with. If you’ve ever thought of making fresh pasta, but were dissuaded by the length of time and patience required, then gnocchi are the gateway preparation for you. Just like pasta, you are combining flour and eggs in to a dough from which shapes are fashioned, the only real differences being the speed with which it comes together and the consistency you’re looking for—gnocchi dough should be rather thicker and damper than pasta dough, due to the cheese or potato.

So, let’s start with making some potato gnocchi. (Recipe for ricotta gnocchi follows below.)

Gnocchi di Patate (potato gnocchi) (serves 4 as a main, 6 as an appetizer)

Ingredients:
2 large floury potatoes; Idaho are perfect
1 1/2 to 3 cups plain flour, sifted, some extra for your hands and board (Depending on the size of your potatoes and the moisture left in your potatoes, you may need more or less than 1 1/2 cups of flour – please start adding some slowly and do not dump all the flour in at once. You’ll add it in 1/2 cup increments so you can control how the dough comes together. The measurements will be different for each recipe depending on size and moisture of potatoes.)
4 teaspoons kosher salt
2 whole eggs

Recipe:
1. Boil a large pot of water with a two teaspoons of salt.
2. Peel potatoes and chop into 2-3 inch chunks. Try to keep them a reasonable size as they’ll be easier to grate in step 4.
3. Boil potatoes until they slide off the point of a knife, but aren’t falling apart, 8-10 minutes. With a slotted spoon, remove potatoes from water, and allow to cool enough to handle. Kill fire, but do not discard water.
4. With a food-mill, ricer, or, better yet, the fine side of a box grater, grate potatoes. Do not use a food processor as potatoes will become gluey, and your gnocchi will be tough.
5. Spread out grated potatoes thinly on a baking sheet and sprinkle with a teaspoon of salt to draw out some of the moisture. Leave for 20 minutes.
5. Sprinkle flour on a board and place grated potatoes on it and sprinkle with half a cup of flour. Make a well in the middle and crack egg into it. Break the yolk with your fingers and combine it all by hand.
6. Mixture should be quite sticky, so continue adding flour and combining until it gets drier and smoother. You’ll know it’s the right consistency when it stops being sticky and, if you cut into it, it resembles a cookie dough. (Don’t worry about getting it really smooth because the potatoes won’t combine perfectly with the flour, it’ll always have a kind of speckled look.)
7. Cut dough into three or four lumps. Re-flour your board and hand roll each of the lumps into a long sausage, about the width of a fat hot dog, I suppose. Then take your knife and cut the roll into inch-long lumps. These are your gnocchi.

8. In order to make the ridges typically found on gnocchi, take each of the lumps and, with your thumb, roll them down the back of the head of a fork. These grooves, as well as the thumb print on the other side, increase the surface area of the dumpling allowing more sauce to adhere to it.
9. Now, reboil the water you cooked your potatoes in and carefully drop in your gnocchi.
10. Stir the water gently to make sure gnocchi don’t stick to the bottom.
11. After two or three minutes, your gnocchi will start coming to the surface of the water. When they’re all floating like this, they’re done.
12. Again with a slotted spoon, remove the gnocchi from water and transfer for a pan containing the sauce of your choice or either of the two described below, after the Gnocchi di Ricotta recipe.

Gnocchi di Ricotta (ricotta gnocchi) (serves 4)

Ingredients:
2 cups whole milk ricotta cheese
1 egg + 1 egg yolk
¼ teaspoon (or more to taste) grated nutmeg
1 ¾ cups plain flour, sifted + extra for your hands and board
½ cup grated parmigiano reggiano cheese
½ teaspoon kosher salt

Recipe:
1. Line a sieve or strainer with a paper towel and drain ricotta over a bowl for at least 3 hours, preferably overnight (3 or 4 tablespoons of liquid will come out).
2. Turn ricotta out of strainer onto a board. Make a well in the middle and pour beaten egg and egg yolk in to it.
3. Tip: If working alone, it’s a good idea to pour your flour out into a pile on your board so it’s to hand as you go on.

4. Mix ricotta and egg mixture together, and sprinkle on nutmeg, salt and parmigiano followed by the first cup of flour, and combine all with your hands.
5. Continue adding flour and mixing dough until it stays together well and has lost much of its stickiness.
6. Cut dough into three or four lumps. Re-flour your board and hand roll each of the lumps into a long sausage, about the width of a thick bratwurst, I suppose.
7. Ricotta gnocchi are typically larger than their potato cousins, so you should cut the rolled dough into 2 inch lumps so that they are roughly rectangular, resembling small pillows. These are your gnocchi. Do not roll down the back of a fork! Ricotta gnocchi are much softer than potato versions and are likely to get squashed and dense if not handled carefully. You want them to be light and fluffy.
8. Boil plenty of salted water and gently drop in your gnocchi.
9. They should take up to two minutes to start coming to the surface, but if they take longer, give the water a gentle stir to release any lightly stuck to the pot.
10. With a slotted spoon, remove from water and transfer to a pan containing your sauce of choice or either of the two below.
11. Tip: for a great alternative both in taste and texture to gnocchi with sauce, you can fry your ricotta gnocchi in butter or olive oil (or a combination of the two), as we did, for a couple of minutes on each side to get them crispy and almost nutty tasting.
12. When they’re browned, stir them around a pan with browned butter and breadcrumb sauce and serve topped with grated parmigiano reggiano cheese.

Sauces for Gnocchi

Gorgonzola and Radicchio Sauce (serves 4)
6oz radicchio, cut into ribbons (julienne)
6 tablespoons blue cheese: gorgonzola, dolcelatte, stilton, or your favorite
1 tablespoon best olive oil
pinch of freshly ground black pepper

In a large saucepan, heat olive oil to medium-low heat. Wilt radicchio for about a minute before adding blue cheese. As soon as cheese begins to melt, add in your cooked gnocchi, and stir vigorously. Kill heat. If you think it looks a bit thick, add one tablespoon of gnocchi cooking water to saucepan. Sprinkle with black pepper, and give it one final stir before serving to appreciative friends and family.

Brown Butter, Sage and Breadcrumb Sauce (serves 4)

8 tablespoons unsalted butter
8 leaves fresh sage
1 tablespoon olive oil
3 tablespoons dry breadcrumbs

In a large saucepan over medium-low heat, melt all but one tablespoon of the butter and add olive oil. Add sage and gently fry leaves for about a minute until fragrant and slightly crispy. Sprinkle in breadcrumbs and add in your cooked gnocchi. Stir well. Now add final knob of butter and allow to brown very gently and coat your gnocchi. Serve immediately and enjoy with a dry white wine.

As you can see from the photo immediately above, we added protein to our ricotta gnocchi with brown butter, sage and breadcrumb sauce in the form of a baked slice of prosciutto. It’s a striking garnish, but also adds an extra crunchy element to the dish. To make them, simply lay out a few slices of prosciutto on a non-stick, or parchment paper-covered, baking sheet and put into a 300F oven for 4-7 minutes or until crisp, but not burned. They’re great when you break them with your fork giving you little slivers of salty ham flavor in every bite.

Tags: dumplings, gnocchi, Italian, Italy, potato, ricotta