Gnocchi
Cooking Skills: Pasta 2
Chapter 6 · Gnocchi
Skill goal
Make light gnocchi and know why baking the potatoes matters.
Shopping list for this chapter
The basics
Gnocchi are small dumplings: a mix of potato (or ricotta, pumpkin or semolina) with a little flour, cut into pieces and simmered. They have few ingredients, so the technique is everything. The aim is the least flour that holds them together.
| Rule | Why |
|---|---|
| Bake or steam the potatoes, don't boil them | Boiled potatoes soak up water, so the dough needs far more flour, and that makes heavy gnocchi |
| Use floury (mealy) potatoes | Waxy ones are sticky and wet |
| Mash or rice while hot | Lumps stay lumps; cold potato goes gluey |
| Let the steam escape | Dry mash needs less flour |
| Mix lightly and briefly | Kneading develops gluten and makes tough gnocchi |
| Cook one as a test | Adjust flour before you cook the lot |
| Simmer, don't boil | A hard boil breaks them up |
Try it
Level 1 · Start here
Potato gnocchi with tomatoes and basil
The rule of gnocchi: dry potatoes need less flour, and less flour means lighter gnocchi. That is why the potatoes are baked, not boiled.
Ingredients (3 portions)
- 500 g floury potatoes (e.g. Maris Piper or King Edward), unpeeled
- 120 g plain flour, plus more for dusting
- 1 Lion-marked egg yolk
- ½ tsp salt
- 1 pinch nutmeg
- 1 tbsp olive oil
- 1 garlic clove, sliced
- 100 g cherry tomatoes, halved
- 4 basil leaves
- 15 g parmesan, grated
- Heat the oven to 200°C fan (220°C conventional, gas 7). Prick the potatoes with a fork and bake on a tray for 60 minutes, until soft right through.
- Cut them in half and scoop out the flesh while hot. Put it through a ricer or mash it very smooth on the board. Spread it out and let the steam escape for 5 minutes.
- Sprinkle over the flour, salt and nutmeg, and add the yolk. Mix lightly with a fork and then your hands, only until it comes together. Overworking makes gnocchi tough. It should be soft and slightly tacky.
- Cut the dough into 4 pieces. Roll each into a rope about 2 cm thick on a floured board, and cut into 2 cm pieces. Dust with flour. (Roll each against the back of a fork if you want ridges.)
- Warm the oil with the garlic in a wide pan for 1 minute. Add the tomatoes and cook for 4 to 5 minutes until they collapse. Add the basil.
- Cook the gnocchi in a large pan of simmering salted water, in 2 or 3 batches. They are ready about 30 seconds after they float. Lift out with a slotted spoon straight into the sauce, toss gently and finish with the parmesan.
The test dumpling
Cook one gnocco first. If it falls apart, mix a spoonful more flour into the dough. If it is stodgy, you have used too much.
Level 2 · Quick
Ricotta gnocchi with lemon butter
Ricotta gnocchi take about 20 minutes to make and are very soft. The ricotta has to be properly drained, or the dough is wet and needs too much flour.
Ingredients (3 portions)
- 250 g ricotta, drained for at least 1 hour
- 1 Lion-marked egg
- 50 g parmesan, grated
- 80 g plain flour, plus more for dusting
- 1 pinch nutmeg, salt and pepper
- 20 g butter
- 1 tbsp chopped parsley
- ½ lemon, zest only
- Mix the ricotta, egg, parmesan and seasoning. Fold in the flour gently until you have a soft, sticky dough. Don't taste it, because it contains raw egg and flour. Chill for 20 minutes.
- On a well-floured board, roll the dough into ropes about 2 cm thick, and cut into 2 cm pieces. Dust with flour.
- Simmer in salted water for 2 to 3 minutes, until they float, then lift out. Be gentle: they are fragile.
- Melt the butter in a pan with the lemon zest, toss the gnocchi in it for 30 seconds and finish with the parsley.
Level 2 · Sweet
Pumpkin gnocchi with sage butter
Pumpkin is mostly water, so like the potatoes it has to be roasted and mashed dry before any flour is added. The ricotta helps bind it.
Ingredients (3 portions)
- 300 g pumpkin or butternut squash, peeled and cubed
- 1 tsp olive oil
- 100 g ricotta, drained
- 100 g plain flour, plus more for dusting
- 30 g parmesan, grated
- 1 Lion-marked egg yolk
- 1 pinch nutmeg, salt and pepper
- 20 g butter
- 6 sage leaves
- Heat the oven to 200°C fan (220°C conventional, gas 7). Toss the pumpkin with the oil and roast for 30 minutes, until soft and dry at the edges. Mash until smooth and let it steam dry and cool.
- Mix in the ricotta, parmesan, yolk and seasoning, then fold in the flour. The dough will be soft and sticky: add flour a tablespoon at a time. Don't taste it, because it contains raw egg and flour.
- Flour the board well. Roll into ropes, cut into 2 cm pieces and dust with flour.
- Simmer for 2 to 3 minutes, until they float and are firm.
- Melt the butter with the sage in a pan for 1 to 2 minutes. Toss in the gnocchi.
Level 3 · Baked
Gnocchi alla romana (baked semolina gnocchi)
These aren't dough dumplings at all. Semolina is cooked in milk, set firm, cut into discs and baked with butter and cheese. Cheap and surprisingly good.
Ingredients (4 portions)
- 500 ml milk
- 125 g semolina (not fine semolina flour)
- 60 g parmesan, grated
- 1 Lion-marked egg yolk
- 40 g butter, plus more for the dish
- 1 pinch nutmeg, salt and pepper
- Heat the milk with the nutmeg, salt and pepper until nearly simmering. Rain in the semolina in a thin stream, whisking to prevent lumps. Cook on a low heat, stirring, for about 8 minutes, until very thick.
- Off the heat, stir in half the parmesan, half the butter and the yolk. Spread 1 cm thick on a wet tray and let it cool. Chill for at least 1 hour until firm.
- Heat the oven to 200°C fan (220°C conventional, gas 7). Cut out discs with a 5 cm cutter and overlap them in a buttered dish.
- Dot with the remaining butter and sprinkle with the rest of the parmesan. Bake for 20 to 25 minutes, until golden and crisp at the edges.
Cook the yolk
The yolk is stirred into hot semolina and then baked for 20 minutes, so the dish is cooked through. Don't eat the mixture before baking.
Experiments
Experiment
Boiled or baked potatoes
The big test.
- Cook 250 g of potatoes by baking and 250 g by boiling whole in their skins. Mash each and add flour a spoonful at a time until a dough forms. Weigh how much flour each took.
- Cook both and compare texture.
Look for: The boiled potatoes need noticeably more flour, and the gnocchi are firmer and denser.
Experiment
Flour amount
How much is too much?
- Make three small test batches of potato dough with 20%, 25% and 35% of the potato weight in flour.
- Cook one gnocco from each.
Look for: The first may fall apart, the last is stodgy. About 25% flour is where most potatoes are right.
Experiment
Cutting thickness
Big or small?
- Cut some pieces 1 cm long and some 3 cm long from the same rope.
- Cook them and compare how they cook through and how they eat.
Look for: The big ones take longer and can be doughy in the middle, the small ones can be fiddly and tough. About 2 cm is a good middle.
Experiment
Boiled or pan-fried
Boiled then browned.
- Boil half the gnocchi, and boil the other half and then fry them in butter for 2 minutes a side.
- Compare.
Look for: The fried ones have a crisp golden crust and a soft middle. Many people prefer them.
Tasting notes
| What I tried | Method or amount | What I saw | What I thought | Will I do it again? |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Potato gnocchi | ||||
| Ricotta gnocchi | ||||
| Pumpkin gnocchi | ||||
| Gnocchi alla romana | ||||
| Boiled vs baked potato | ||||
| Flour amount | ||||
| Cut size | ||||
| Boiled vs fried |
Troubleshooting
| Problem | Likely cause | What to do |
|---|---|---|
| Gnocchi fall apart in the water | Not enough flour, or water boiling hard | Do a test dumpling; add flour; simmer gently |
| Heavy and stodgy | Too much flour, or overworked | Use baked potatoes and mix briefly |
| Sticky dough | Wet potatoes, pumpkin or ricotta | Dry them out first; flour the board |
| Gluey texture | Potato was mashed cold or over-mixed | Mash hot and mix lightly |
| Grey colour | Potatoes left to stand after mashing | Work quickly |
| Semolina disc sticks | Not chilled long enough, or tray not wet | Chill longer; wet the tray and the cutter |
Food safety: gnocchi
The potato, ricotta and pumpkin doughs contain raw flour and (except the semolina) raw egg. The dough contains raw egg and raw flour. The Food Standards Agency advises against eating or tasting uncooked flour or dough, because raw flour is not treated to kill bacteria such as E. coli. Don't taste the dough or any filling that contains raw egg, wash your hands, the board and your tools after handling raw dough, and use Lion-marked eggs. Cook fresh pasta thoroughly. Pregnant women, children under 5, people aged 65 and over, and anyone with a weakened immune system should be especially careful.Gnocchi are simmered until they float and firm up, which cooks them. Uncooked gnocchi are best frozen straight away on a floured tray, then bagged and cooked from frozen (about 1 minute longer). Fridge storage of the raw dough is not recommended: it goes grey and sticky. Cooked pasta is a starchy food, and like rice it can grow bacteria if it is left warm. There is no pasta-specific official guidance, so this course uses the cautious rule: cool it quickly (within about an hour), put it in the fridge, and eat it within 24 hours; freeze it if you won't. Reheat until steaming hot all the way through.
Cooked potatoes also need to be cooled and chilled promptly, so the potato must be baked and handled on the same day.
Checkpoint: can you do this now?
- I know why the potatoes are baked, not boiled.
- I can mix gnocchi dough lightly, and test it with one dumpling.
- I can make ricotta and pumpkin gnocchi.
- I can make and bake semolina gnocchi alla romana.
- I can freeze raw gnocchi and cook them from frozen.
Next chapter
Cooking Skills: Pasta 2, chapter 7 is Lasagne from Scratch: fresh sheets, ragù and white sauce, and a spinach lasagne verde.