Making Homemade Gnocchi from Leftover Mashed Potatoes
Basically, almost all countries have their own form of dumpling. It’s quite easy to see why, since dumplings are tasty, nifty and a great way to use leftovers.
Did you know that in Italy, they collectively call their dumplings as gnocchi? There are numerous styles in making gnocchi, but all of them are quite delicious. Gnocchi is easy to enjoy at home while using very basic ingredients. You can make them from scratch using freshly boiled potatoes or you can even make use of your mashed potatoes.
We find using mashed potatoes gives a creamier and earthy flavor to the gnocchi so that’s what we’re going to use today.
For the mashed potatoes, we’re using the recipe that we posted before. We also used Priority Chef Potato Ricer and Masher to get the fluffiest and creamiest texture in our mashed potatoes and eventually, in this case, to get that fluffy little pillow texture.
So let’s start with making your gnocchi:
- 1 cup mashed potato, warm
- 2 cups all-purpose flour
- 1 egg
- 3 tbsp rock salt
- pinch of salt and pepper, to taste
Combine the mashed potatoes, 1 cup of flour (reserve the rest) and egg into a bowl. Thrown in a pinch of salt and pepper. Mix until fully absorbed.
To form the dough, sprinkle flour on a clean counter and place the potato mixture and sprinkle more flour on top. Kneed lightly and it t will only take about a minute to two to form a dough. You may need more flour depending on the consistency of your mashed potatoes. Just add one tablespoon at a time until you get the consistency that you need. Kneed the dough lightly for a few more rounds until it gets its pliable consistency, then it’s ready.
To form the gnocchi, sprinkle about 1 to 2 tablespoon of flour on a clean surface. Shape small portions of the dough into long "snakes" at about 3cm and then cut off smaller portions into 2 cm. Repeat until you’ve used up all your dough. Make sure to properly space up your gnocchi so that it doesn’t stick together.
Put water in a pan, add the rock salt, cover and bring it to a boil over high heat.
Drop in gnocchi and cook for 3 to 5 minutes or until gnocchi has risen to the top; drain and serve.
For a summer feel, let’s just keep it light simple. Just put gnocchi in a plate, add melted butter, sprinkle with thinly-shaved Parmesan cheese and fresh sage leaves. And there you have it simple, fun and easy dinner that you and your family will love!
