This is it. The ultimate comfort food. I’ve been working on perfecting my gnocchi skills after I had the most amazing vegan gnocchi at a restaurant recently. It’s one of my favorite things to make mainly because it’s relatively simple (just a little time consuming). In one of my attempts to perfect my recipe, I decided to pair from-scratch alfredo sauce with it and THAT was a game changer. Little potato puffs covered in creamy, “cheesy” sauce. *Chef’s kiss!*
Let’s start with the gnocchi. First, you’re going to want to cook your potatoes. I have tried this recipe with both baked and boiled potatoes. Either will work, boiling them will just be quicker. If you go with boiling, it should take about 20-25 minutes. If you have the time to bake them, they take about 1 hour and 30 minutes.
Once the potatoes have cooked, you’ll want to peel and mash them in a large bowl. Be sure to wait till they cool a little so you don’t burn yourself. Mash the potatoes thoroughly so there are no clumps. Next, you’ll add in the flour and salt and mix until a ball starts to form. It’ll be pretty thick, so I use a fork so that I can try to mix as well as possible.
As the dough comes together, you can begin to mix the dough in the bowl and knead it so it’s all in one ball. You’ll want to move to kneading the dough on a hard, flat, floured surface. Knead the dough until it’s smooth and slightly sticky but not sticking too much. If it’s really sticky, add more flour. Set the dough aside and let rest for about 15-20 minutes.
In the meantime, you can make the sauce. You can follow the alfredo sauce recipe here.
After the dough has had some time to rest, cut it into four sections. This will make it easier for rolling out. Start rolling out your dough into rolls about an inch wide. (Sort of in the same way you’d roll out playdough snakes as a kid.) Cut the rolls into about 1-1 1/2 inch pieces. You can roll them into balls, or leave them whatever shape they come out, whichever you’d prefer. Or if you want to be really fancy, you can do the trick where you roll them on the back of a fork to add the ridges. (I’m not that fancy so I pretty much leave them as is.)
Once your gnocchi is cut, bring a medium size pot of water to boil. I also advice having your frying pan ready as well. I keep that pan on medium-low heat with some butter so I can add the gnocchi right to it after it boils. Boil the gnocchi in batches so it doesn’t all clump together in the pot. You’ll know it’s ready when the gnocchi start floating at the top. Scoop them out and add them to your frying pan.
After all of the gnocchi has boiled and been added to your frying pan or skillet, turn it up to medium-high heat and cook until they start to brown. This adds a nice texture because they’re soft inside, but a little crispy on the outside. Feel free to salt and pepper to taste here, but that’s totally optional.
Once your gnocchi and sauce are done, just combine and serve! Also optional, I usually top it with a little pepper and nutritional yeast.
