Did you catch Alessandro Pavoni making gnocchi with Miguel Maestre’s pesto on The Living Room?
The Living Room chefs have shared their recipe with Now to Love, including exclusive gnocchi cooking tips to keep things as smooth and delicious as possible.
Why wait to get cooking? Check out the recipe below.
Ingredients
1kg russet potatoes
Rock salt
200g 00 flour, sifted, plus extra for dusting
80g parmesan, freshly grated
1 teaspoon fine salt
Pinch freshly grated nutmeg
2 egg yolks
Freshly grated parmesan, to serve
Method
Wash the potatoes, removing any dirt. Add whole potatoes, with peel on, into a large pot. Fill the pot up with water until it is double the volume of the potatoes. Add 10g of rock salt per litre of water.
Put the pot on high heat and bring to the boil. Reduce to a simmer, cooking for 40 minutes.
Drain potatoes from the water and rest for 5 minutes. Transfer to a plate and microwave for approximately 4 minutes, or until the skin is dry and starts to wrinkle – this will be dependent on the size of the potatoes.
Peel potatoes and cut into pieces and pass through a potato ricer or mouli onto a clean dry work bench/board, lightly dusted with flour. Spread it out on the bench/board and leave to cool for a few minutes.
Sprinkle the 200g flour, the parmesan, salt and nutmeg over the top of the potato and place the egg yolks in the centre.
Work the dough together with a pastry scraper and your hands until the dough just comes together; don’t overwork it, add a little more flour if it’s too moist.
Shape into a 4cm-high brick, cut lengthways into 1cm-thick slices, cut each slice into 1cm-thick logs and roll gently with your hands to make them round. Cut logs into 1cm pieces.
Bring a large saucepan of salted water to the boil. Cover and reduce heat to low. As gnocchi rise, scoop them with a slotted spoon or spider.
Drain well and add to a large bowl filled with your chosen pasta sauce. Add some of the starchy pasta water to the bowl, this will help the sauce thicken and coat the gnocchi. Toss the gnocchi, sauce and water together and serve whilst hot, topped with grated parmesan.
Alessandro Pavoni making gnocchi with Miguel Maestre.
MIGUEL’S PERFECT PESTO
Prep time – 10 minutes
Serves – 4
Ingredients
1 small clove of garlic
Pinch of salt
2 tablespoons of pine nuts
2 bunches basil leaves
50g grated parmesan
100mL olive oil
Juice of ½ lemon
Salt and pepper
Method
- Using a mortar and pestle, crush the garlic, salt and a splash of the olive oil until it
forms a paste.
Then add pine nuts, crushing to break the nuts down.
Then add basil leaves a few at a time, making it into a paste.
Finally add the cheese, remaining oil and lemon juice, grinding until well combined.
Season to taste
How to cook the perfect gnocchi
Choose the right potato
You need a starchy potato, like a russet, to make gnocchi that are soft and delicate.
Potatoes should be older, aged in a dark environment for a week or two. An aged potato will have less water content than a new potato.
Cooking
Many people boil their potatoes for gnocchi, but the trick is to keep the potatoes dry so tha they are fluffy and melt in the mouth. Alessandro boils his potatoes and then zaps them in the microwave to remove any excess moisture. Roasting them whole, in their skins, on salt to absorb any moisture is another way to provide dry results and an intense potato flavour.
Hot potato
Make the dough whilst the potatoes are still hot, protecting your hands whilst peeling. Use a mouli/ricer, if you have one, or push the potato through a fine sieve from a height to get some air into it and stop overworking the potatoes and making them gluey.
Flour
Flour is used to bind the dough together but the key to perfect gnocchi is to use as little flour as possible. This will make them light and airy. Use sifted 00 flour, a fine Italian flour found in your supermarket. Make sure you season it to give the gnocchi some flavour.
Eggs
In Veneto they make gnocchi with eggs, which can make it easier to make. Alessandro adds egg yolks to his dough for a richer gnocchi.
Seasoning
A few simple additions like freshly ground nutmeg and parmesan can be added to the gnocchi dough to add some wow.
Working the dough
Work the dough as little as possible, overworking will develop the gluten with chewy results.
Shaping and cooking
Lightly flour your hands, the bench and the tray. Roll the dough into lengths and cut it into uniform sized dumplings. You can also press each dumpling against your finger with a fork to give grooves to hold the sauce.
Cooking
Salt the water well and bring down to slow simmer so the dumplings don’t bounce around whilst they cook. Don’t overcrowd the pan and cook until they rise to the surface. Tossing the gnocchi in some oil ensures they don’t stick together.
