Last year, Amy and I spent a very enjoyable long weekend with her cousin and cousin’s husband visiting the
After our second full day of tasting we were all overwhelmed by the urge to continue our bacchanalia that evening with a four course dinner and more wine. Heated discussions were had over what should be on the menu and what we could reasonably cook given that we’d been drinking all day and the kitchen in our cabin was less than professional-grade. Finally, we decided that a variety of cold appetizers, including hummus, guacamole, crudite, and pita chips, would be an easy way to begin and might allow us to cook the rest of the meal without getting too drunk.
The second course was gnocchi with a combination of two Lidia Bastianich sauce recipes – one with breadcrumbs fried in butter, and the other with sage and brown butter. The sauce, of course, was about as easy as a sauce can be, but the process was lengthened by us making the gnocchi from scratch.
The third course was a delicious New York Strip steak served with a red wine jus and roasted red and golden beets. And all of this was topped off with a final cheese course of a
Now, the point of this tale is not to wow our readers with how much we drink when we’re with Amy’s cousins, because we often surprise ourselves by that, but rather it is to demonstrate that you can make really, really good gnocchi di patate from scratch even when you’re half in the bag — though we recommend you make it when sober for the first time.
Here’s how to do it.
GNOCCHI DI PATATE (Serves 3 to 4)
Ingredients
– 3 large Yukon Gold potatoes, peeled and cut into 2-3inch cubes/lumps
– 1 large egg
– Up to 2 cups plain white flour (depending on size of your potatoes)
Recipe:
3. Use a food-mill, food processor or, better yet, the fine grater side of a box grater, to grate potatoes.
4. Spread grated potatoes out on a baking sheet and sprinkle with remaining salt to draw out some of the moisture. Leave for 20 minutes.
5. Sprinkle flour on a board and place grated potatoes on it. Make a well in the middle and crack egg into it. Add half a cup of flour and combine it all by hand.
BROWN BUTTER AND FRESH BREADCRUMB SAUCE (from Lidia Bastianich)
Ingredients
- Unsalted Butter (about 1 stick)
- 6-8 Sage leaves
- 1 thick slice of bread – grated finely
- Salt and Pepper
- grated Parmigiano Reggiano
Recipe
- Melt butter in saute pan on medium. When it begins to color, add your grated breadcrumbs. You will be crisping up your breadcrumbs, but watch your heat because you do not want to burn your butter.
- After 1 1/2 minutes, add the sage. Allow to flavor the butter for another minute.
- Season with salt and pepper. Toss sauce with your gnocchi. Plate and sprinkle with grated Parmigiano Reggiano. DELIZIOSO!
look at that! they do look so very pillowing, i love lydia too. her food reminds me of my noni. just beautiful gnocchi!
Gnocchi is on my long list of things to make. Great photos…now exactly how long did it take you to make all that?
Hmmm… those gnocchi’s took about 45 minutes to 1 hour total (including mixing the dough, letting it sit w/ the salt, cutting and shaping). It looks like it would be a pain in the a$$ to shape each gnocchi individually, but if you aren’t a perfectionist (which, in my opinion and experience making homemade pasta, you can’t be!) then you’ll be fine. Do it with a friend or your husband and it goes even more quickly. Really, give it a try. All you need is your hand, no machines required! We’ve done it with whole wheat flour before, but they don’t taste as delicious. Thanks, Pixie and Aria!
-Amy
PS: OH, and Aria… have you ever been able to see Lidia’s real Noni (ok, it’s her kids Noni, but you know what I mean…lidia actually calls her Noni on the show)… she is a TOTAL poosh (word i use to mean cut -human or animal). She is like the quintessential noni – she looked like mine and she probably looks like yours! There’s pics of her in her cookbooks too.
I just love gnocchi, but I always have it with either a Napoletana or Gorgonzola cheese sauce. The breadcrumb sauce sounds delicious. A beautiful post.
Hey! Great you post about gnocchi!!! I’m bookmarking this one 😀 I would love to make my own some day. Thanks!!!
I was just thinking about making gnocchi this morning! I guess I could try to train the hubz to do it, since I’m laid up. 🙂
I love making it in the summer with diced fresh tomatoes and herbs, and just a drizzle of good olive oil and some S&P. I’m thinking of using roasted celeriac or some parsnips in the dough for spring. Yum!
Can you please make this along with the pizza & all that other stuff that you need to make me when I visit?? THANKSSSS!!! MISS AND LOVE YOUU!! XOXOOX….great post btw
call me crazy, but this sounds like the perfect food project for me the four year old while my wife’s away in NYC for the next few days. Thanks for making a dish that had intimidated me seem so. . . approachable.
I think you’re in for some fun (or at least the kid is since I’m sure you’ll be the one doing the clean up! Let us know how it goes. I think this is the perfect meal to make w/ a child. Just don’t let him smear dough on the walls.
mmmmmmmmmm.
i think i found dinner.
My sister and I made them for Christmas Eve they were indeed little pillows of joy. There was not one left! We served them with a Gorgonzola cream sauce and a fresh basil suace. They were awesome. I think I will make them again this weekend! Loved your blog about being half in the bag because my sister and I were joking about drinking some wine Christmas Eve morning while we were making them. I knew this was the recipe for us:)
Marilyn – thanks so much for trying our recipe! Your sauces sound awesome and congratulations on a great Christmas meal! I feel like cooking always goes that little bit more smoothly when you’ve been drinking, or maybe it just feels that way!