Recipe Review: Jamie Oliver’s Homemade Gnocchi

 Gnocchi. Mysterious, miniature clouds of delight. Pillows so soft that you wish you could rest your head on them… only then your face may be covered in sauce. But it would be so worth it!

I adore gnocchi. I sure hope I say that word properly, “adore”. Haha jokes I mean pronouncing the word gnocchi. Okay, enough joshing, let’s get serious.

As most of you may know, Jamie Oliver is one of my favourite chefs. Therefore, it is my natural reaction to turn to his videos or books when I want to find a delicious recipe. The other night I knew that I wanted to try making homemade gnocchi. So I retrieved a recipe from his Italian cookbook. And yes, gnocchi is time consuming to create, but is totally worth it. Even though you spend all that time working on one recipe and it is gone within minutes when eaten. It is sad yet satisfying at the same time. If I was an inventor I would create a button that allowed you to reset the meal on your plate so you could eat it over and over again…. And not gain any weight, of course.

One thing that will make your life a lot easier, is if you have a ricer for the cooked potatoes. It is like an instant way of mashing potatoes, without using so much elbow grease. I however, used an attachment on my kitchen aide stand mixer that worked fabulously.  It looks like a grater and it spins around with the mixer, creating a beautiful, silky smooth mash when potatoes are forced through it. You could also simply use a masher for the potatoes, however you want to ensure there are no lumps remaining. If there are lumps, you will not have pillowy, chew-with-your-gums gnocchi.

Another key, is to use fresh potatoes. This helps to make the gnocchi delicate and delicious. And after you spend all that time forming the dough and rolling it out, you can have some fun experimenting with different techniques for shaping the balls. Jamie’s book and videos have all different methods for forming unique shapes. I kept it simple by slightly pinching my gnocchi to form minor indents.

Once the balls have been formed, boil them in water until they all float. I find this part to be quite entertaining to watch. Like little ducklings coming up from their search for food. Gently scoop the beauties out of the water, coat them in butter so they do not stick together, and now they are ready for the perfect blanket of sauce.

This is what is wonderful about pasta, choosing from so many different types of delectable sauces. The options are endless. Pesto, alfredo, tomato, ragu, etc., etc… I want them all so badly that my mouth is watering just thinking about it!

In summary, gnocchi is an easy dish when it comes to the number of ingredients involved. However, it does take quite a bit of time to cook and form the dough. But once you take that first bite into these fragile pillows, your mouth will be filled with utter pleasure. Especially when the gnocchi is accompanied with a breath-taking sauce. I think I am going to go make more gnocchi now.

Enjoy!