(Mis)Adventures in Gnocchi

After weeks of drooling over a recipe, I finally settled in to make gnocchi for the first time.  Of course I decided to make it for company, and the recipe only yielded servings for 2-3 people as a main course.  So I made 3 batches of it, albeit unintentionally.  I had intended only to make 2 batches, but ran into some problems when it came time to pick potatoes.

You see the recipe called for 2lbs of potatoes.  I had purchased a 5lb bag, and figured I could just use most of the bag and leave 2 or 3 out.  However, the recipe really calls for 3 cups of potatoes, but you don't measure them til after you microwaved, baked, peeled (while hot), riced, and spread on a cookie sheet to cool.  If you have more than 3 cups, you're supposed to discard the remains. 

I emptied my bag of potatoes into the sink and discovered my first of many potato hurdles.  These suckers were enormous!  If I kept out 2 or 3, I'd probably only have 3lbs of potatoes, and for my purposes I needed 4 (or so I thought).  I considered using them all, but decided against that as I really didn't need the extra pound.  I'd finally settled on 7, when I realised that my microwave would only hold 4 potatoes at a time, and tossing in 3 potatoes could really screw up the cook times.  So I used all the potatoes save 1, which I scrubbed and set aside for a baked potato for my husband some time in the near future.

Having microwaved and baked said spuds, I got down to peeling them with a paring knife.  It was surprisingly easy, with the exception of the scalding steam each potato emitted as its peel fell off.  But the recipe said peel when hot to allow release of steam and prevent a build up of moisture within the potato.  So I peeled and scalded, peeled and scalded, until they were all done.  Of course this brought me to the ricing stage.

I knew before I started that I hadn't a ricer, but I did a little research and found I could use a sieve and get the same effect.  So I brought out my little metal mesh sieve and began pressing potato through it.  Contrary to what I thought (and every indication I'd gotten beforehand), passing a potato through a sieve is not a simple or easy task.  It's actually quite labor-intensive as is evident by my now broken (and possibly unfixable) sieve.  While the mesh was separating from the handle, I tried valiantly to continue as I had no back-up plan, and consequently gave myself several pricks and slices with thin metal thread.  Thankfully I will not be playing with lemons anytime soon.

With my ricer substitute now in ruins, I was at a loss.  I decided to step out of my kitchen for a break, and then discovered the disaster that my living room had become.  My 3 year old son had climbed up and gotten down my stationary organizer and strewn its contents all over the floor.  I really hadn't realised til I was picking up and reorganizing my stationary that I have quite a lot of it.  And the cards had to be rematched to their envelopes (and of course they aren't a standard size).  I finally cleaned up that mess, settled my son on the couch for a nap, and decided to tackle the potato problem with a grater.

Just for the record, grating cooked potatoes is a very messy experience and gets particularly sticky once the gluten forms its nice little molecular chains.  But I pressed on (pun absolutely intended!) and finally triumphed over the ricing fiasco.  By this point, the potatoes were mostly cool, very likely well past the 10 minute cooling allocated by the recipe, so I rushed right on to the measuring.  That's when I discovered that I had 9 cups of potatoes.  In case you don't remember, I really only needed 6.  How I ended up with what my recipe said would amount to 2 batches of gnocchi (by following its initial potato measuring system) I haven't the foggiest.  Nevertheless, there I was with enough to make 3 batches of gnocchi.

So I mixed the first batch and rolled out the dough as described.  The only hitch at this point was getting nice, even ridges in the gnocchi, which the recipe promised would help hold the sauce.  It said to roll the gnocchi onto a fork.  There was even a picture of how to do it.  But it didn't work!  My gnocchi ended up turning into noodles following the recipe's guidelines.  At this point, I figured I'd made enough adjustments independently, so I threw caution (what was left of it) to the wind and pressed instead of rolled.  And I must say, by the last 3 pieces of the final batch, I had it down to an art.

Thankfully, all my efforts were not for naught.  It was received to rave reviews by friends and family alike.  Needless to say, it will be some time (possibly years) before I attempt this recipe again.