Photos by Shoji Kudaka ()
When I’m looking for a quick and easy dinner recipe, my go-to is either pasta Pomodoro or spaghetti Aglio e olio, two of my favorites. This time, I was looking for something new, so I went for gnocchi, a flour and potato variation pasta dish.
Jamie Oliver, the Naked Chef from TV, calls gnocchi a “comforting midweek dinner,” so I was ready to try making my own. It looked like it would be simple enough, especially after watching a Japanese culinary researcher prepare this treat on TV.
It took me about an hour in total, from washing and peeling potatoes to serving up gnocchi with sauce on a plate. Since it was my first time cooking this dish, and I was filming and taking photos at the same time, it would probably take less time than that.
According to Rachel Roddy, an award-winning food writer, gnocchi is a cornerstone of Roman home cooking. In an article for The Guardian, Roddy shared a Roman folk rhyme which says gnocchi is the dish made on Thursday “if God wants.” It was only after I finished cooking that I realized it was a Tuesday.
Despite that oversight, the gnocchi was great even for a Tuesday! My dad was a little suspicious of the pasta, which looked more like a dumpling than anything else. However, once trying a piece, he liked it. So did my mother. As I looked at my parents trying gnocchi on Tuesday, I was thinking about families in Rome at a dining-table, enjoying their Thursday gnocchi.
INGREDIENTS Gnocchi with cheese cream for one person
For gnocchi
Potato (150 g)
All-purpose flour (45 ml)
Potato starch (5 ml)
Flour to sprinkle on gnocchi (as much as you please)
Hot water to boil gnocchi (1,000 ml)
Salt (10 ml)
For cheese cream
Milk (200 ml)
Cheese for pizza (Blend of gouda (80%) and mozzarella (20%) cheese] (40g)
Powdered chicken stock (2.5 ml)
Salt (a little)
Starch mixed with water (15ml)
Topping
Black pepper (as much as you please)
Dried Parsley (as much as you please)
DIRECTIONS
1. (For precooking) Peel a potato and cut off buds. Wrap the potato in saran wrap and microwave (600W) for four minutes. Prepare boiling water with salt in it.
2. Put the heated potato in a plastic bag with flour (45ml) and starch (5ml). Knead it to mix the ingredients together.
3. Mold the dough into small balls, each the size of one bite. Sprinkle flour on each piece as you mold it. Press each piece against the back of a fork to make dents (or grooves) on the surface.
4. Put the dough into (salted) hot water and boil them over medium flame. Start to remove the pieces from the water as they float to the top of the surface. Drain the gnocchi in a colander.
5. In a frying pan, pour milk (200 ml) and heat over medium heat. Once it’s boiled, add cheese (40g) and powdered chicken stock (2.5 ml), and stir them together.
6. Add salt to adjust the taste. Add starch mixed with water (15ml) and stir the mixture. Once the sauce starts to thicken, add in the gnocchi. Once the pasta is incorporated into the sauce, remove the pan from the heat.
7. Serve up the gnocchi on a plate and top it with black pepper and dried parsley.
8. Bon appetite!
*This recipe is adapted from Kurashiru cooking website.
