Making Potato Gnocchi

Place whole unpeeled potatoes into a medium saucepan with cold water on medium heat. 

Leaving the skins on lets them cook but keeps a lot of the moisture out. Or you could bake them instead. Bring the potatoes to a boil and cook for 20 to 25 minutes until soft enough to mash. Check with a knife to see if potatoes are cooked through and tender. When done, drain the potatoes. 

When cool enough to handle, peel each potato and cut into small pieces. You could mash the potatoes with a potato masher but for best results, use a potato ricer. Press the pieces of potato through the ricer over a bowl. Add 1/2 cup flour, 1/4 cup grated Parmesan cheese, 2 egg yolks, salt and pepper and gently mix into a doughy consistency with your hands adding more flour as needed. 

Transfer the dough to a well floured surface and lightly shape it into a ball.You want light airy gnocchi so don't over-work the dough. If you do, they will be too dense and heavy.

Cut a piece of dough and gently roll it out into a rope about 1/2 inch thick. 

Cut the rope into pieces about 1 inch long then roll them across a gnocchi board. This will put groves in the gnocchi so they can hold the sauce (plus it gives them a cool look). Lisa is rolling one on the gnocchi board I made from scrap hardwood. If you don't have a gnocchi board use a fork and roll each gnocco across the tines to make the groves. Or just leave them plain.

Lisa, thanks to her OCD, made the perfect gnocco.

Bring salted water to a simmering boil not a hard boil. This goes for cooking ravioli too - don't put them into a hard rolling boil. That's one of the reasons they break apart or in the case of ravioli, burst. When they float, they're done. Scoop them out with a slotted spoon or wire spider.

And sauce with a light tomato marinara or sage butter or olive oil and grated cheese or a mushroom cream sauce like this - 

Roast chicken, broccoli and gnocchi with a mushroom cream sauce

Mushroom cream sauce:

1 shallot minced
3 tablespoons unsalted butter
1 box fresh cremini mushrooms, diced
1/2 cup white wine
1/2 cup heavy cream
2 teaspoon chopped fresh thyme

Grated Parmesan cheese

In a skillet add three tbsp butter, the crimini mushrooms and the fresh thyme. 

Saute about 5 to 7 minutes. 

Add 1/2 cup white wine and reduce by half, about 5 minutes. 

Add 1/2 cup heavy cream and gently simmer for another 2 to 5 minutes. 

Once the sauce has simmered, add the gnocchi and stir together. 

Serve and garnish with a little grated Parmesan