Making Gnocchi

Two recipes, one evening and a story to tell.

So my good friend C of Mele Cotte came over to keep me company the other evening. Since we both enjoy cooking / baking I thought it would be nice if we made a few "new" things while we were together.


We started our cooking adventure by trying a recipe I read about on the "Pioneer Women Cooks" blog. I really wanted to try out the Olive Oil Cakes with Lemon and Thyme because it sounded so interesting. If they turned out yummy I planned to make them again for a shower that I am attending next month (Sorry Marsha the secret is out - I am trying out recipes for the shower - don't read on...).

The muffins looked so good when they went into the oven and when they came out of the oven.


BUT there was a huge problem - they wouldn't come out of the pan.



Now C explains many reasons for why they might have stuck to the pans but I really didn't know. I thought Pioneer Women said I could use cooking spray in the tins and that would take the place of the butter and flour she used. Not sure what happened but it made me want to cry. Pretty, yummy, little muffins that would not come out of the pan. I only know they are yummy because as we pulled the tops off of them and tasted them and they were very good ~ just stuck!!!!!!!!!!!!

Gnocchi
Even though we had a kitchen upset we did not stop there b/c we still needed to make dinner. I recently bought a Jamie Oliver cookbook and the Arugula & Potato Gnocchi caught my eye.

We used the Jamie Oliver recipe but made a few changes

6 medium potatoes ( we boiled our potatoes - seemed faster)
Olive oil
Whole Nutmeg, grated
pinch of salt salt
pinch of pepper
1 egg yolk
1-2 handfuls of plain flour ( we added more than two handfuls but it could have been
b/c I washed the arugula and it wasn't completely dry).
1 bunch (about 3 cups) chopped arugula
all purpose or semolina flour

Boil the potatoes with the skins on until tender. Drain. Remove the skins. Press potatoes through a ricer (we, really C, did this right on the counter top).




Make a well in the potatoes, add the nutmeg, salt, pepper and egg yolk (we added the whole egg )


Add the arugula and about two handfuls of flour to bind the mixture together. You can add more flour if the mixture is too wet.






Then divide the dough into pieces and roll each piece out on a floured surface into long tubes. Cut each of the tubes into 1-inch pieces. Place them on a plate or tray sprinkled liberally with flour, and allow to sit in the fridge for about 20 minutes to set.


Bring a large pan of salted water to a soft boil. Drop the gnocchi into the water in small batches because you don't want them sticking together. The gnocchi will rise to the surface and that is when you know they are done.



The gnocchi are very tender so it is best to use a slotted spoon to remove them rather than dumping them in a strainer.

We served our gnocchi with the recommended butter, broth, lemon and cheese mixture.




Ahhh ~ Success!