Making potato gnocchi at home isn’t as obvious and easy as you think!

I must admit that with my little tricks they always succeed and the final result is really full-bodied, tasty, flavourful. Yet, chatting with my friends, I discovered that many have given up precisely because the yield is sometimes too soft and they fall apart during cooking, others too floury and become lumpy, certainly not very pleasant.

Do not throw in the towel, with my tips I assure you that you will never fail again.

They are very simple, but rigid, essential rules : you must observe them to the letter every time, without neglecting even one.

Let’s start with the doses and then get straight to the point: for every kilogram of potatoes (cooked weights, please!!!) you need 250/300g “00” flour and 30g salt.

The rest? Now I’ll tell you every detail!

Potato gnocchi: my little secrets

Remember that none of these tips should be overlooked for a truly extraordinary rendering of gnocchi. Nobody!

Let’s start with the choice of potatoes: we must always use white-fleshed potatoes which must be strictly old, or the red variety. These two species are floury, rich in starch and have the power to bind perfectly to the other ingredients.

Let’s choose them of the same size: for uniform cooking, they must all be more or less of the same weight.

Wash them carefully anyway and put them to boil in a large saucepan, but fill it with very cold water.

Never dip them in boiling water, we always start from the beginning. Let’s cook them for about 30/40 minutes . Let’s check them, they’re ready when they don’t resist. Let’s not go any further with the cooking otherwise they will fall apart and fill with water.

Let’s knead them while they’re still warm , otherwise our dough will be sticky and lumpy. Let’s pass them through the potato masher, it is not necessary to peel them, the peel will remain trapped between the meshes and the pasta will descend without residues into the bowl.

At this point let’s weigh them. Then add the flour according to these proportions for the required quantity: 25% of the weight of the potatoes (30% at the most), therefore 250 grams of flour will be needed for 1 kg of potatoes. Let’s fix the salt.

We work everything little and quickly.

When we get a firm dough, we can prepare our gnocchi.

Sprinkle the cutting board with semolina, divide the dough into strips, then roll them from the inside out on the pastry board. We need to obtain long and rather thin sausages, but the dimensions vary according to personal preferences!

Cut them into chunks, then we can leave them as they are for smooth gnocchi, or decorate them on the gnocchi line or with the prongs of a fork.

Arrange them on a tray, cover them with a dry cloth and let them dry for another quarter of an hour before cooking.

Cooking

At this point we can put a saucepan full of well-salted water on the stove over high heat.

Dip the gnocchi when the water boils and drain them with a slotted spoon as soon as they float to the surface.

Let’s share them and enjoy them! They are extraordinary and, as you can understand, very few precautions are enough to be able to prepare them in a workmanlike manner!

Let me know if you love them as much as I do!