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Tagsone begets the other
I’m in the midst of my first-ever self-imposed knitting break. It’s weird to not be picking up the needles during down time, but I’ve been dealing with neck pain since I moved to New York two and a half years ago, and I just needed a break to let things relax. But one benefit of not knitting is the additional time I spend on other pursuits—notably tonight, cooking.
Last week I bought some pesto at Fairway, a fabulous local New York grocery store. I used it in a different dish (pesto-crusted salmon) for Valentine’s Day with the boy, and I discovered it had a consistency less emulsified and more oily than when I make pesto from scratch—a quality that just begged to be slathered on potato gnocchi. The last time I made gnocchi was, if I am remembering correctly, about seven years ago, and I don’t remember it being particularly successful (after all, I never did it again), but this rich, seductive pesto needed to be dripping off homemade gnocchi. Immediately. The craving was palpable.
My poor neglected food mill was out of practice; it only gets put to use when making mashed potatoes. Which is a perfectly good use for a food mill, of course, but it’s always fun to find a new use for it. (I am aware, of course, that the use is still for milling potatoes, but the result it what matters here.) Tonight those potatoes had only a small bit of egg and about half a cup of flour added to them to make a light, fluffy potato dough.
I followed the recipe exactly but it turned out I didn’t need nearly the whole 3/4 cup of flour to get the dough to hold—it was soft and supple and not at all sticky. It made perfect plump pillows of gnocchi, all ready to be stroked across the tines of the fork. . . . Whew, I’m getting a little carried away.
Finding a rhythm for drawing the gnocchi across the fork was the only slightly tricky part; by the last few bits I felt confident with my technique. I used the back of the fork and rolled the nugget with my thumb ever so gently; it responded quite satisfactorily to my touch.
Threw them into the re-boiled potato water and they were happily bobbing at the top within a minute; drained into a bowl and slathered with the pesto and it was a meal to die for. All it needed (not in the picture) was a shaving of some fresh, salty parmesan cheese to round out the flavors and make this the best meal I’ve made in a long while. Mmmmmmm. I got the happy ending.
29 Responses to one begets the other
hahaha, this is such a seductive post :) yummy yummy gnocchi!
Oh, man. I LOVE gnocchi. I tried to make them once, and they were a disaster. Clearly, I need to try again.
Oh god, I am so hot for carbs right now.
damn, girl, you’re making me hungry!
Looks delicious! I am drooling over here…
Wow, that looks delicious!!!
I’ve never had gnocchi before, but I obviously must try them now.
They look yummy!
You said “happy ending.” Perv.
Looks like happy ending, indeed!
Who would have thought that a blog post about gnocchi would be so blush-inducing! The gnocchi looks delish.
Whew! Is it getting warm in here? You got some nice gnocchi, baby.
I had to smile when seeing the first picture of your post – as I only used my food mill for the first time ever yesterday :) In the course of finding the perfect pizza sauce, by the way! Other purposes I have known people using their food mill for include making cheese cake and baby food. Okay, the latter was stated on the packaging of my brand new kitchen gadget. Quite frankly, I don’t know a lot of people who own one in the first place.
Oh wow, that looks amazing. AMAZING.
Your gnocchi look delicious. The bright green of the pesto screams “Spring” to me.
I can’t believe I buy premade gnocchi. I’m definitely trying some home-made stuff soon! Thanks for the inspirational pics… it’s 1:35am, and I’m hungry!
Oh my. This is almost pornographic.
(slurp)
(that was the sound of my trying to avoid drooling)
I’d get Andy Garcia round to show me how to shape them. Love that scene in Godfather III. But I, too, have been buying ready-made and am now inspired.
I have never tried to make gnocchi because I have had it where it was awesome and I have had some very bad gnocchi. I surely don’t want to experience making my own bad gnocchi! Yikes! You make me wanna try though with this. Thanks!
Re-boiled potato water? So old school, love it. Have my elderly Lancashire relatives been hiding out with you?
Yum!
Make sure you take care of that neck. I see a lot of people who have chronic pain. So take care. You’re too young!
seductive cooking posts… cute guy… coincidence? ;P Hope you enjoyed! The gnocchi, of course!
wow.
you MADE gnocchi!!!!?!
I am super impressed…
Oh my god…I love gnocchi. All previous attempts to make them from scratch have resulted in disaster, but maybe I’ll have to give them another go. I’ve been having a mega pesto craving lately.
This wonderful post is nearly enough for me to try my hand at making gnocchi again. My first attempt was…marginal.
Wow does that ever look yummy! Now I won’t be able to get it out of my mind.
Wow! It looks so gorgeous and it makes me hungry! I’m definately going to try this out myself some time very soon!!
That last picture is just beautiful. Mm, makes me wish I had some pesto!
Oh I love gnocchi, oh my goodness, you have just made me so hungry and now nothing else will do! Off to peel potatoes….
Oh wow, that meal looks fantastic!