There's a local restaurant and pizzeria in Ewing, NJ called Piccolo Trattoria that turned me onto gnocchi for life. Their Gnocchi Florentine is described as 'homemade ricotta and potato dumplings sautéed with spinach and tomatoes and topped with fresh mozzarella in an Aurora (tomato cream) sauce.' 🤤 On our last night in Rome this summer, my family ate at a restaurant called Klass. I had a delicious "Gnocchi con vongole e broccoli " -- Gnocchi with clams and broccoli.
Essentially dumplings, gnocchi are delicate pillows of silky, smooth dough consisting of potatoes, flour, and egg. They are simple to make and take on the flavor of whatever they're served with.
Because they require so few ingredients, I was able to wake up on my snow day this week and instantly decide I was going to try making them homemade. Luckily, my house is always stocked with the perfect ingredients. Thanks Mom and Dad! 😉
First, I made the simple vodka sauce. Keyword: simple.
Servings: 4
1/2 stick unsalted butter
1 & 1/2 cups heavy cream
1/3 cup tomato paste
1/3 plus 2 tbs. vodka
Pinch of red pepper flakes
1 tsp salt
1/2 cup grated Parm
Over medium-low heat, melt butter and cream.
Dissolve tomato paste in vodka. Pour into butter/cream mixture and whisk.
Add red pepper flakes. Season with salt as needed.
Cook until alcohol has evaporated and sauce is thick enough to coat the back of a spoon.
Add more cream, tomato paste, and salt as you like...
Now onto the gnocchi... I used this recipe: https://www.delallo.com/blog/making-homemade-gnocchi-step-step-guide/. I pretty much followed it to a T, which I don't do often.
No ricer? Use a cheese grater like I did. It worked great! The recipe I followed suggested to plan one medium-sized potato per person and about 1/2 cup of flour per potato. I used 3 potatoes and ended up adding a touch more flour when I found that my dough was too "potatoey."
Gnocchi cook fairly quickly. I dropped them into boiling water, stirred them around to prevent sticking, and within a minute or two, they were floating to the top. I used a slotted spoon to transfer them immediately to the vodka sauce. I let the gnocchi cook longer and meld with the sauce--about 2 minutes.
This was my lunch serving. I put the rest of the gnocchi into a CorningWare and ladled in a small amount of sauce to keep them from sticking.
