Gnocchi is a traditional Italian dish. In fact, these are miniature dumplings, which, as a rule, are served with a variety of sauces.
In Italy, gnocchi can be found everywhere. They are sold in dried, fresh and frozen form. Italians believe that every housewife should be able to cook gnocchi, because there is nothing tastier than homemade gnocchi carefully prepared by a beloved woman.
Gnocchi can be based on various products, most often it is flour, cottage cheese (ricotta), semolina, pumpkin and, of course, potatoes. I really like the version of gnocchi made from potatoes. There is something close and familiar in it, akin to Russian cuisine.
It is also nice that this amazingly delicious soulful dish can be prepared even when it seems that almost all the products have run out in the house and you urgently need to run to the store. The minimum set of products, and the result is a hearty, tasty, and unusual dish of the usual ingredients. Let's get started?
To prepare potato gnocchi with basil, prepare the ingredients on the list. Typically, 4–5 large potato tubers are enough to cook 2 servings of medium size gnocchi. You can increase the amount of ingredients by two to three times and freeze part of the gnocchi.
Instead of basil, you can also use sage, oregano, thyme, tarragon and other fresh herbs to taste.
Prepare the main component of the dish - potatoes. Rinse, wipe dry, pierce with a fork in several places and bake, but not easy in the oven, and on a baking sheet covered with a thin layer of salt. Of course, you can just boil the potatoes, but the taste of baked potato salt is much more interesting and brighter.
Bake potatoes in an oven preheated to 200 degrees until cooked, as a rule, the process takes 30–35 minutes. Ready potatoes are easily pierced with a knife or a wooden skewer, their peel dries and is separated from the pulp. Salt can be stored and reused later.
Baked potatoes in this way are tasty in and of themselves, but we will continue and prepare delicious gnocchi.
Cool the potatoes lightly. Peel and grate on a fine grater.
Add the yolk, chopped basil leaves, salt, ground black pepper, 1-2 tablespoons of flour.
Combine the ingredients and move the dough onto a floured surface.
Keep kneading the dough, adding flour gradually. The finished dough should not stick to your hands, remaining soft and plastic. The less flour, the more tender the finished gnocchi will be.
Divide the dough into several parts and roll into sausages. Cut into small pieces. Roll each piece of dough into a ball.
Using a fork, make grooves on the surface of the gnocchi. You can skip this step, but it is believed that these grooves on the surface allow the sauce to better envelop the surface of the gnocchi, and the dish becomes much tastier. Well and appearance, of course, they also improve.
In order to make grooves, install the plug as in the photo and, holding with one hand, with a quick and easy movement, roll the ball around the fork as if you were going to roll it upward on the handle on the base. The ball rolls back already with characteristic grooves on the surface. The process requires some skill, but after several attempts you will surely succeed.
You can experiment with the degree of pressure, hold the gnocchi with your fingers on the sides, rolling back and forth, and even apply grooves over the entire surface of the gnocchi. Experiment and you will quickly find the most convenient option for you. At this point, gnocchi can be frozen and used later.
Formed gnocchi, boil in boiling salted water for 1 minute. This step is similar to cooking lazy dumplings - throw the gnocchi into boiling water and take out as soon as they surface.
For sauce, melt a few tablespoons of butter in a pan. Add a few basil leaves if desired. The sauce can be changed depending on the mood and season. Potato gnocchi will be equally good with tomato, cheese, mushroom, green sauce and pesto.
Place the boiled gnocchi in the melted butter, lightly warm everything together for several minutes.
Our goal is not to fry the gnocchi, but only to warm and bathe in a fragrant sauce.
Serve the potato gnocchi with basil hot, sprinkled with grated cheese or lemon zest.
This can be determined using a toothpick or knife, if the inventory easily pierces the flesh of the root crop, then the potatoes are cooked, if not, then cook another 5 to 7 minutes. Immediately after the vegetable is boiled, turn off the fire and pour it together with water into a colander. Then put it on a plate and leave it for 10 minutes, this time is enough for the potatoes to cool slightly. 
Now gently remove the skin, and not allowing the root crop to cool completely, go to the next step. 
In order to chop potatoes, use a grater. Grate the potatoes with medium or small holes, so that the mass is soft, uniform and without any lumps. It is very important for the preparation of our dishes. 
We spread mashed potatoes on a clean, flat surface and sift the necessary amount of flour directly on it. 
Then add salt and with your hands begin to knead the mass in a homogeneous dough. It should stick a little to the hands, if necessary, you can add more sifted flour. The dough is soft, but dense enough. 
First we give it a round shape, and then oval and cover it with a kitchen towel. We leave the dough to rest in this state on 10 minutes.
After the right amount of time, remove the towel, lightly sprinkle the surface with flour and proceed to the formation. We cut the test oval into strips with a knife. 
About 3 - 3.5 centimeters.
Then hands twist each into a long smooth sausage or sausage. 
And already cut it into identical pieces about the size of 2 - 3 centimeters. Now it's time to give these pieces the traditional look of gnocchi. In order for the finished dish to better absorb various sauces. In Italy, for this purpose they use a riganokka - this is a wooden fixture with a ribbed surface, but it can be safely replaced with an ordinary fork. 
Put one piece on the back of the fork, squeeze lightly. 
And now carefully twist. 
You should get neat corrugated dumplings. 
We turn on the temperature of the stove to a high level, pour water into the pan and put the container on the burner. Bring the liquid to a boil, salt and add a little vegetable oil. Reduce the temperature of the plate and spread the cooked gnocchi. After 1 minute or less, they will pop up, and this will mean that the dish is ready. We get them using a slotted spoon and put it on a plate. 
Potato gnocchi is considered the second dish and served hot, most often with various home-made sauces, as well as seafood or vegetables. As a drink, you can use any freshly squeezed juice or dry wine. Bon Appetit! To prepare potato gnocchi, the root crop can not only be boiled, but also baked with a peel, that is, in its uniform. This process will take you about 1 hour. Thus, the potatoes will be less watery and the dough will knead much easier.
To give the dish a cheese flavor, you can add a little hard cheese to the dough, such as parmesan, pre-ground on a grater.
You can grind potatoes not only on a grater, but also using a special potato masher, meat grinder or through a metal sieve, gently rubbing it with a tablespoon. The main thing is that the vegetable is fully cooked and warm.
One faceted glass holds 150 grams of flour.
Potato gnocchi is an Italian dish whose cooking technology resembles lazy dumplings, but the taste is slightly different and the size is smaller. It takes up to 60 minutes of time. Even novice housewives will cope with the recipe.
You can make gnocchi only from old hard potatoes with a low starch content, in all other cases, the blanks will simply fall apart during cooking. Cheese slightly changes the classic taste, you can not add it.
Ingredients:
1. Wash the potatoes well and boil them in their uniforms until cooked. The main thing is that the tubers do not burst, otherwise the flesh will absorb too much moisture, and kneading the correct gnocchi will be more difficult.
Another option is to put the washed dried potatoes on table salt and put in the oven for 30-45 minutes, heated to 200 ° C.
2. Peel hot potatoes with a fork or knife. The hotter the tubers, the better. Cold potatoes stick together.
3. Grind peeled potatoes in mashed potatoes with a crush or rub through a sieve. Mashed potatoes should turn out smooth, uniform, without lumps.
4. Add salt to taste and egg yolk (optionally, finely grated cheese or chopped greens). Mix.
5. Spread the mixture on a floured surface. Knead the dough, gradually adding flour. Ready dough should stick a little. Depending on the starch content of the potatoes, more or less flour may be needed than indicated in the recipe.
6. Roll out the dough into a sausage with a diameter of about 2 cm.
7. Cut the sausage into pieces 2.5 cm long.
8. Squeeze each piece lightly with a fork so that there are characteristic grooves that will better absorb the sauce. A simpler option is to press each blank with a finger so that a hole appears.
9. Cook potato gnocchi in boiling salted water. As soon as the blanks have surfaced, they are ready (cooking time - 3-4 minutes).
Gnocchi can also be fried in butter on both sides until golden brown. In Italy, this method is called "gnocchi piemontese", translated into Russian - "Piedmontese gnocchi".
Some Italian dishes quite firmly woven into the outline of the cuisines of many countries. Which, unfortunately, cannot be said about Gnocchi. Despite a long history, they are only beginning to gain popularity outside their homeland. This is a kind of dumpling from Italy. As with many dishes of the republic, gnocchi recipes differ significantly from region to region. The culinary traditions of different countries of the world also have their analogues. To understand the difficult world of such simple flour products, our article will help you.
Gnocchi has rather deep roots that date back to the 16th century, the period in which the import of potatoes from America began. However, the potato version of the dish is just an evolution of a much older Italian recipe dating back to 1300.
In fact, the very first gnocchi were called zanzarelli. Their base was not potatoes or semolina, but grated stale bread. It was mixed with dried fruits and milk and molded balls.
In the XVII century, despite the fact that potatoes were already widespread in Italy, gnocchi from this root crop had not yet gained due popularity. In most regions, crushed crackers in the recipe were replaced with flour, and milk with water and eggs. This dish was called "malfatti".
The first documented recipe for potato gnocchi dates back to the second half of the 18th century. And since the end of the 19th century, the popularity of food has spread throughout the country with the speed of a fire. The term "gnocchi" was derived either from the Italian nocchio, meaning "a knot on a tree," or from nocca (knuckle). Probably the name is associated with the form.
It should be noted that the size of Italian dumplings has changed over time. From the size of a chicken egg, they reached small “shells” for one bite. This decrease necessitated a better impregnation of the dough with the accompanying sauce.
There are many options for gnocchi. But, nevertheless, they have common characteristics to fit into one group of products. Let's see which dumplings are eaten in different regions of Italy.
Pawnshops do not have a special love for potatoes, so spinach and various herbs are more common in their gnocchi. Although in some recipes there is a small amount of mashed potatoes from the American root crop.
One of the variants of the northern dumplings is called malfatti. This is a mixture of spinach with eggs and chopped breadcrumbs. Ideally, they need to “rest” the night before cooking, but the most impatient ones cook them immediately, seasoning them before serving with a lot of oil and grated.
In the commune of Gera Lario (Gera Lario) there is a recipe called gnocchi alla lariana (gnocchi alla lariana). Their dough includes flour, eggs, milk and herbs. The finished dish is served with fresh cheese, tomato or meat sauce.
Gnocchi di Apecchio (Gnocchi di Apecchio) - a dish representing the cuisine (Marche). In their test, in addition to wheat, there is cornmeal.
In (Umbria), gnocchetti alla collescipolana is preferred. To prepare them, knead the flour with crushed crackers and water. The traditional sauce accompanying the meal contains sausages, beans and tomatoes.
(Sardegna) is the birthplace of malloreddus. This is a kind of hybrid of gnocchi and pasta. Small pieces of dough in the form of shells are traditionally served in conjunction with a sauce of tomatoes, salsicchi, saffron and pecorino cheese.
A dumpling called ganeffe is a smart way to recycle rice leftovers. It is boiled and mixed with oil, egg yolks, parmesan and saffron. Balls are formed from dough, which are first fried in olive oil, and then served in separately cooked meat broth.
Pride (Toscana), in particular the area (Siena) and (Grosseto), are nyudi (gnudi). To prepare them, ricotta is mixed with spinach and roll in flour. They are boiled and served with melted butter and herbs. Nyudi is the advantage of home-made meals, so they are rarely found on sale.
Tuscan housewives also make Gnocchi del cicolano (gnocchi with corn and wheat flour) and matuffi. The latter are polenta of dumplings, alternating with layers of meat or mushrooms with parmesan.
Canederli is a favorite of the region. These are balls of crackers, milk, onions, and parsley. Sometimes they are enriched with speck and cheese. Usually they are served in meat broth with butter and grated hard cheese. They also act as an accompaniment to goulash.
Do not forget about the sweet versions of the food. Canederli d’albicocche (dumplings with apricot) and di prugne (with prunes). After cooking, they are fried with butter, sugar and cinnamon until a caramel crust is formed. They eat both the first dish, and as a dessert.
The region is characterized by an unusual variant - gnocchi de susini (gnocchi de susini). This is a prune in a “shell” of potato mix. At the same time, they eat such a version as the first dish.
In (Trieste), gnocchi de gris friulani is preferred. Prepare them from semolina and eggs. Served in broth or with melted butter.
In (Emilia-Romagna), the dish pisarei e faśö, which came from the Middle Ages, is widespread. They are based on dough made from flour and breadcrumbs, rolled into long cylinders, cut into small pieces the size of beans and crushed by the thumb. They are served with beans, lard, onion and tomato.
Another popular variant of gnocchi malfatti di Borgotaro is a combination of flour and herbs (or spinach).
Despite the fact that the first gnocchi appeared long before the American root crop was imported into Italy, still recognized as a classic potato recipe. These soft dumplings blend perfectly with any sauce. To prepare them, we need very few ingredients:
To begin with, carefully wash the potatoes, pour them with cold water in a large pan and put on fire. From the moment the water boils, cook for 30-40 minutes, depending on the size of the root crop. We check the readiness with a fork: if the teeth went gently to the middle, then you can turn off the heat and drain the water.
On the working surface, spread the flour in a pot. We peel the hot potatoes, rub on a fine grater and send it to flour. Pour a slightly beaten egg with a pinch of salt into the deepening of the resulting “structure”.
Mix everything with your hands until the dough is soft and compact. Too long kneading of the dough can lead to the fact that the finished gnocchi will be harsh.
We take a small piece of dough and with our hands we form a sausage about 2 cm thick. When working with one part, the rest of the mass must be covered with a towel in order to avoid airing. We cut the sausage into pieces 2-2.5 cm long and use a fork to make ribs on each dumpling to give a classic shape. Sprinkling with dough semolina or flour will help to prevent the dough from sticking to your hands and work surface.
Dip the pieces in boiling salted water. As soon as they surface, our potato gnocchi are completely ready. Serve with sauce to taste.
In order to preserve the semi-finished product, we lay out the raw dumplings on a tray sprinkled with flour at a small distance from each other. Sent to the freezer for 20 minutes. Then we transfer the package and freeze again.
A fairly simple recipe still has several "pitfalls", stumbling upon which, you can significantly spoil the dish. Simple recommendations will help you avoid trouble:
The constant companion of potato gnocchi is sauce. When choosing it, everyone relies on their own taste. Someone prefers tomato, someone like gourmet Pesto. We present to your attention 5 unusual and incredibly delicious sauces.
Walnut sauce is an excellent "unbroken" accompaniment to potato gnocchi to the festive table. To prepare it you will need:
Let the breadcrumbs swell in milk. Put walnuts, grated cheese, garlic and crackers in milk in a blender bowl. Beat for several minutes until smooth. Add salt, olive oil and spices to taste and mix. A delicious sauce for lovers of nutty flavor is ready.
Potato gnocchi in pumpkin sauce is one of the most delicate options for serving dishes. For 1 kg of dumpling we need to take:
Cut the pumpkin into cubes, spread on a baking sheet and sprinkle with olive oil. Bake at 180 degrees for about 15 minutes (until softened).
Transfer the hot pumpkin to a deep bowl and fill it with cream. Beat with a blender to a puree state. Salt to taste, although the salinity of the cheese may be quite enough.
Carefully mix the cooked dumplings with the sauce, sprinkle with grated cheese and decorate with sage leaves.
Zucchini is a universal component. Their mild taste is usually liked by everyone. Peppermint flavors add a special flavor to the dish.
Essential Ingredients:
Grind onions and fry until golden brown in olive oil. Dice zucchini and combine with onion. Fry until cooked. Transfer the vegetables into the thicker of the blender and chop. Salt and pepper to taste.
Finely chop the mint leaves. For serving, mix the prepared gnocchi with zucchini cream, sprinkle with grated cheese and mint.
Spinach sauce is simple, but at the same time healthy and light. It combines very well with potato gnocchi for a casual table.
Components:
First, chop the onions finely and fry in olive oil until golden brown. Add a small amount of water and frozen spinach to the pan. Stew until the greens soften. In a blender, beat still hot onions with spinach, milk, cream cheese and butter. Mix the prepared gnocchi with the sauce and sprinkle with hard cheese to taste.
Fans of more savory dishes will appreciate fresh pepper sauce. To prepare it you will need:
To make the sauce not only tasty, but also beautiful, we recommend taking peppers of different colors (yellow and red).
We clear the pepper from the seeds and cut into small cubes. Fry with garlic in olive oil over medium heat. Then add salt, black pepper, chopped parsley and 0.5 cups of water. Stew until the peppers are cooked.
In another pan, fry finely chopped onions with bacon in olive oil. Next, pour the wine, add peeled and diced tomatoes. Salt, pepper to taste and simmer for about 40 minutes. At the very end, add the prepared pepper, mix and turn off the heat.
Combine the hot sauce with gnocchi and serve. If desired, the dish can be seasoned with allspice and chopped parsley.
Contrary to the frightening word “potato” as part of classical gnocchi, their caloric content is relatively small. For example, it is lower than rice and pasta. Their nutritional value is only 124 kcal per 100 g and consists of:
In terms of use, salt dumplings do not stand out from other products. Therefore, there are no special warnings for hypertensive patients. Moreover, the homemade dish is easily adjusted for the amount of sodium chloride.
It is worth remembering that the caloric value of food is increased by the addition of sauces. Potato gnocchi, lightly seasoned with olive oil and tomato sauce, are ideal for any diet. Including for people with overweight, hypertension and high cholesterol.
Those suffering from type II diabetes mellitus should reduce portions of gnocchi due to their high glycemic index. In this case, an excellent option for serving dishes is with vegetable sauces and fresh vegetables.
A trip around the world of Italian dumplings has ended. We hope that now in your arsenal there is a wide scope for the embodiment of your culinary fantasies. Live diverse, cook for everyone and remember: “Lunch is thin when there are no gnocchi!”
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Italian gnocchi dish is kind potato lazy dumplings or dumplings. Italians love toast them with melted butter, Parmesan cheese, tomato or pesto, and ricotta. Exist classic homemade gnocchi recipe, in which there are only three ingredients - potatoes, flour and salt, but over time, other recipes for these, such as mushroom gnocchi, pumpkin, and cheese, have become popular. You can add an egg to the dough for gnocchi, so it will be easier to work with it, but they will no longer be so airy. The most important thing is not to fill the dough with flour, it should be exactly enough so that it does not stick to your hands. On the gnocchi, make a notch with a fork so that the sauce or butter soaks every piece well. One of the most delicious ways to serve gnocchi is to season them with fried onions, melted butter or sour cream. Such a simple dish of vegetables will help you out when you need to quickly prepare a delicious and satisfying dinner, while without spending a lot of money you can take advantage potato gnocchi step by step with photo.
For potato gnocchi, you can grate a little hard cheese or sprinkle the dish with chopped herbs. You can also fry onions in vegetable oil and season with this gnocchi. Bon Appetit!
