Gnocchi

I read quite a bit about making gnocchi before I tried it, Apparently its really hard. I must have got lucky because I got it perfect on the first try.

Potato gnocchi should be light and delicate. Not, dense, rubbery, and/or soggy. The very worst are the gnocchi that come apart in the boiling water.

I love gnocchi with good olive oil, pesto or a Gorgonzola cream sauce.

Ingredients
2 pounds of starchy potatoes (2 large russets)
1 egg, lightly beaten
scant 1 cup of unbleached all-purpose flour
fine grain sea salt







Method
Fill a large pot with cold water. Salt the water, peel and cut potatoes in quarters and place them in the pot. Bring the water to a boil and cook the potatoes until tender throughout, this takes roughly 30-40 minutes.
Remove and drain the potatoes, mash the potatoes when they are hot. To do this you can either push the potatoes through a ricer, or on the cutting board using  a fork run the fork down the sides of the potato creating a nice, fluffy potato base to work with. Don't over-mash - you are simply after an even consistency with no noticeable lumps.

Let the potatoes cool spread out across the cutting board  about ten or fifteen minutes. When they are ready, pull the potatoes into a soft mound drizzle with the beaten egg and sprinkle 3/4 cup of the flour across the top. I use a large pastry scraper  to use to incorporate the flour and egg into the potatoes with the egg incorporated throughout - you can see the hint of yellow from the yolk. Scrape underneath and fold, scrape and fold until the mixture is a light crumble. Very gently, with a feathery touch knead the dough. This is also the point you can add more flour (a sprinkle at a time) if the dough is too tacky. I usually end up using most of the remaining 1/4 cup flour, but it all depends on the potatoes, the flour. The dough should be moist but not sticky. It should feel almost billowy. Cut it into 8 pieces. Now gently roll each 1/8th of dough into a snake-shaped log, roughly the thickness of your thumb. Use a knife to cut pieces every 3/4-inch (see photo). Dust with a bit more flour.
To shape the gnocchi hold a fork and indent. Set each gnocchi aside, dust with a bit more flour if needed, until you are ready to boil them.
Start a fresh pot of water (salted), and bring to a boil. Cook the gnocchi in batches by dropping them into the boiling water roughly twenty at a time. They will let you know when they are cooked because they will pop back up to the top. Fish them out of the water a few at a time with a slotted spoon ten seconds or so after they've surfaced. Toss with desired prepared sauce and serve immediately.