How To Make Homemade Gnocchi (and Have a Party While Doing It) (2024)

FAQs

How do you keep gnocchi warm for a party? ›

Use a Chafing Dish

Just like you see at a wedding or a buffet. While the chafing dish ensures that your pasta will stay hot for a long time, it can also dry the pasta out and cause sticking if there's no water reservoir between the food and the heat source. (This steams the food so it stays both warm and moist.)

Can I make gnocchi ahead of time? A fresh gnocchi dough can be made 6 hours ahead of time and stored in the fridge. Any longer than that and the gnocchi will begin to turn an unpleasant grey colour and become softer in texture. However, you can easily freeze gnocchi.

Typically, Italian guidelines recommend the following quantities of uncooked pasta per person: 60-100g of dried pasta. 70-120g of fresh pasta. 100-130g of gnocchi.

Never boil potatoes for gnocchi. Always bake potatoes in their skins to make gnocchi from. It removes maximum moisture from the potato. Don't bake them in advance as you need to use them as soon as they come out of the oven.

You can prepare pasta up to 24 hours in advance. To do so, follow these instructions: Cook it for half the time recommended in the package instructions. Then, drain the pasta and spread it out on a cooking sheet and allow it to cool.

Freeze gnocchi in one single layer on a flour dusted sheet pan. Once frozen, transfer to an airtight container (they shouldn't stick together). Label, date and freeze up to 3 months.

When cool enough to handle, scrape off the skins and push the potato through a ricer or food mill, then, while still warm, start working your dough on a floured work surface. (Here, Davies offers up another tip to fight the mush: “Spread out the mash to cool; the escaping steam will further take away any moisture.”)

Gnocchi should be soft, melt-in-your-mouth, fluffy pillows. They should not be tough and chewy. Is it better to boil or fry gnocchi? Both boiling and frying are good for gnocchi, but boiling is the most traditional method—and it's quick and easy.

It is best to freeze gnocchi uncooked as soon as they are shaped. Arrange the gnocchi in a single layer on a baking pan and place the pan in a level position in the freezer. Freeze until solid, about 3 hours. Gather the frozen gnocchi into resealable freezer bags.

Egg yolk added to your gnocchi dough helps improve texture, and keep it together while cooking. Gnocchi is traditionally made with eggs in Veneto and no eggs in Piedmont, the two Northern Italian regions famous for gnocchi. We vote for egg yolks at the rate of 1 per (500g) 1 lb of uncooked potatoes used.

How do Italians serve gnocchi? ›

A very popular way to serve gnocchi is with tomato, basil and mozzarella. This simple trio is at the base of the famous Gnocchi alla Sorrentina, in the Sorrento style, where the gnocchi are baked and the melted mozzarella binds the sauce and the gnocchi with cheese strings.

Italian flour

Plus, it has too much protein: High-protein wheat results in chewy gnocchi. If you want to be true to Italian gnocchi, look for imported Italian flour marked "00 tenero," which is milled from soft wheat with a low protein content.

The secret to the lightest, most tender potato gnocchi is to bake the potatoes instead of boiling them. A baked potato is dryer than one that has been boiled, which means you avoid having to add more flour to the dough to account for excess moisture, a practice that leads to over-kneaded, tough gnocchi.

My Gnocchi Are Falling Apart When I Cook Them

This means there isn't enough flour and your dough is too wet.

Chafing Dish

Chafing dishes are often used in catering or cooking for a large crowd. They work much like the double boiler method but on a larger and more portable scale. A chafing dish is a large pan filled with a little hot water and a slightly smaller pan that is set on top and filled with food.

Don't overcrowd the pot: When cooking the gnocchi, don't overcrowd the pot. Cook the gnocchi in small batches to prevent them from sticking together. Season the water: Add salt to the water when boiling the gnocchi.

As in all recipes, also in the case of gnocchi, the timing is important: before adding the flour to the potatoes, make sure that they are not hot but warm. When the potatoes are hot, in fact they absorb the flour more easily and this factor could deceive you making you exaggerate with the quantities.

How to store gnocchi. Store covered in the fridge for up to three days, or freeze uncovered and separated on a tray until solid, then transfer to freezer bags or containers for up to three months.