Happy Meatless Monday! I've got a great, EASY recipe for you today: four-ingredient gnocchi.
For those of you with Italian blood in your veins, I'm sure that my recipe is blasphemous. For those that are open to the easiness and tastiness of this recipe (that happens to cut corners), then read away!
Recently, Fylde, Fresh and Fabulous reached out to me about making a recipe starring potatoes. (Their motto is "We produce potatoes to be the star ingredient for all our customers," so they are passionate about potato dishes!) I've had gnocchi on my brain, so that made the choice easy. Fylde, Fresh and Fabulous is based in the UK, so I encourage you to check them out, especially if you're across the pond. They recommend using a waxy, but starchy potato for gnocchi. In the UK, this is a Désirée potato; in the States, it's probably something closer to a Yukon Gold. For this recipe, I ended up using something a tad bit waxier: a red potato.
Baking VS. Boiling -- I've seen numerous vegan recipes where the potatoes have been baked and then scraped out. I will tell you: I think that method leads to more overdone potatoes, making the gnocchi gummy and weird. Every time I boil my potatoes for gnocchi, my dinners turn out well. I don't use the traditional potato ricer; why dirty an extra tool that you don't need? David at Fylde, Fresh and Fabulous recommends boiling the potatoes whole first and then slow roasting them on a bed of sea salt in the oven. That sounds divine!
This recipe yields about 60 gnocchi, depending on how you slice them. If you don't do white potatoes, you can substitute them for sweet potatoes or yams; toss the finished gnocchi with a little olive oil, fresh basil, and dried cranberries -- and you've got yourself an amazing meal!
Easy Eggless Gnocchi for Beginners
2 c. potatoes, peeled, boiled, and mashed
1 c. organic all-purpose flour*
3 T. white wine
1 T. olive oil
*In this recipe, you can use a gluten-free mix in the place of regular flour, although it will taste a little different. I recommend 3/4 c. rice flour and 1/4 c. millet flour.
Directions
Once your potatoes are fully cooked, make sure that you mash them completely. You really don't want any lumps in your mixture. Next, using your hands, knead in the remaining ingredients. As you knead, it should come together nicely, much like Play-Doh. If you are in the middle of kneading and things feel wrong, just keep going a little longer. Add a dash of extra olive oil and keep going. It should look like the picture below.
Take a section of dough and roll it out on a floured surface. The little log should be between a half-inch and an inch in diameter. (Funny -- this is also how you roll out homemade Tootsie Rolls!) Cut the rolls into one-inch pillows.
Repeat this process with all of the dough. Rest your little pillows on some parchment or wax paper. In the mean time, you can bring a medium-sized pot of water to boil.
Once the water is boiling, add in about 10 to 12 gnocchi without crowding your pan. Work in batches to get the pasta boiled. How do you know when it's done? The pasta will float to the surface. With a slotted spoon, remove the gnocchi from the water and cook another batch.
This pasta can be paired with any sauce; it's very versatile! I know you and your family will love this treat on Meatless Monday!
Cheers,
-Aileen