So yesterday I had multiple sparkling moments of nostalgia while reminiscing of my time in the hills of Sorrento Italy. It wasn’t so much the crisp cool air that whispered “stay here natural girl…stay” as I wondered around the tiny streets and enticing shops. But the delicious and super filling bowl of Gnocchi that I had at a small family restaurant. Once I find that picture I have of the menu I will share the name.
That was my very first time trying the yummy and oh sooo supple potato pasta dumplings. At each bite I munched away on the light and airy “squishy-ness” drenched in homemade tomato sauce and wondered why we’ve never met?
Instead of drowning my Gnocchi sorrows with cashew nuts, I decided I must attempt to make them myself. Shoooot, I did graduate from “YouTube and Food Network University” (I’m copyrighting that phrase LOL) so of course after watching tons of videos and reading multiple articles, I thought…this is is going to be easy…like baking cookies easy!
Ummmm well it didn’t quite turn out like that 🙁
So I will spare you nightmares from images of trying to get the potatoes and flour into a dough. I didn’t have a “ricer” so I just used my handy food grater. It works on carrots so why not grate my potatoes.
After fighting with the dough and trying very hard not to use too much flour like a novice…smh… I cut it into quarters, then each quater into half and rolled it out like this.
Another battle occured when I started to cut each roll into 1 inch pieces and form my Gnocchi with “light” imprints from a fork. You know for that cute little decoration. *Sigh* Well folks its not as easy as it looks nor as I thought.
After getting frustrated with the fork and my sticky pieces of dough (remember I tried not to use too much flour…because thats what novices do!) I realized in my blind anger I was smashing the crap out of my poor little Gnocchi-pookies and creating a colossal sized mess.
After a breather and a coach like side conversation with my hands this is what we created.
Yeah…not quite Sorrento but I tried. I was mildly satisfied with my efforts UNTIL I started boiling these little dumplings filled with potatoes and basil.
I followed instructions and boiled a few at a time for 2 to 3 mintues. During minute 1 and 1/2 of the first batch something very very bad happened. I stared into the pot in disbelief. WHAT??!! What the hell is going on here? Gnocchi…can you hear me?? Pieces of dough and basil floated to the top of the water. You can’t be done? I continued to talk to the pot of food ( as most food crazy people who think they are chefs do) and realized my Gnocchi had exploded. Every single one of them!
Annoyed and grossed out I quickly spooned them out and poured them onto paper towel heaven. *A moment of silence* My rational…I didn’t use enough FLOUR!. So I turned the other batches into a dough AGAIN and added more flour, rolled and reshaped. This time the batches came out semi normal. I let them rest then mixed them into my sauce.
I figured over compensating with plenty of sauce would cover up the monstrosity that my Gnocchi turned out to be 🙁
Yes sauce….this would fool my family.
Nope! My stepfather tried it and was like, “what is this?!”
I tried to explain but he was not convinced. He ended up making a small pot of curry chicken and white rice. This surely will be the last time and only time I attempt to make Gnocchi. Stick with daydreaming of Sorrento you say…well I believe I will!