This past Wednesday I was finally back up to playing in the kitchen. For this week: gnocchi. I found a recipe I liked that included Parmesan cheese and I added my own twist of Caramelized Onions and a reduced Balsamic Vinaigrette. Unfortunately, I had to take a look at several other gnocchi recipes as the dough originally came out very loose and sticky. A check revealed that it called for way too little flour: 1/2 cup versus 2 cups in other recipes that used less potatoes. I also chose to boil the potatoes like I would for mashed rather than baking. Not sure if that “shortcut” made a change in the results.

At any rate, I knew the sticky dough was a problem. I’ve eaten gnocchi only once, but I’ve seen it made on Top Chef, so I knew the dough wasn’t supposed to be sticky. It had to be a manageable dough that could be rolled out. I ended up needing all the flour that was missing to get the nice, non-sticky dough seen below.

After splitting the dough into 4 (the recipe suggested 5 pieces, but I think maybe 6 pieces would make it more manageable) pieces. The amount of dough I was working with at one time ended up being a bit much, but I suspect that’s mostly because we use a wooden cutting board to work with our pastry stuff, so I didn’t have the whole length of the table (and because of an accident with the table earlier, I couldn’t use it that way anyway).

Then came the cutting into “little pillows”. Some of them ended up not so pillow shaped and keeping the sizing consistent was a bit difficult, mostly because I had trouble rolling the pieces out to a similar thickness.

We did the boiling in batches, though I think next time I would try to have more in the pot at one time because as we continued to use the water, it seemed to make it take longer for the gnocchi to rise to the surface. Not sure what was going on, but the water was becoming milky, and I’m sure that had something to do with it. But we did little batches and drained on cleaned towels. They didn’t quite keep their shapes as little pillows.

With the gnocchi read to go, I caramelized my onions and set them aside.

We fried the gnocchi in the same pan as the onions. I was kinda hoping it would give the gnocchi a touch of that onion flavor, but I don’t think it did, especially for the later batches.

Grated Parmesan was mixed in with the finished gnocchi and it was served topped with the Caramelized Onions and a reduced Balsamic Vinaigrette. They tasted really good, and all but my potato hater and the Chef loved them. The Chef has determined he’s just not into gnocchi, while I keep saying he just needs to find the right recipe. I found them heavier than the ones I had at Creations, and I’m not sure why. I’m not sure if I’ll try them again since the Chef doesn’t particularly like them, but I might. I’m wondering if they can be frozen and used for bentos. I may have to try that at some point.

The entire meal, shown below, was a honey baked chicken (with paprika, ginger, and a touch of nutmeg), the gnocchi, and broccoli.

I’m not sharing the original recipe. As I said, the flour portions were off, so I’m concerned that the other ingredients were a bit off. I may use it again, now a little wiser on the flour, and play around with the other measurements. We’ll have to see.

We did have a Mystery Box this week that came out wonderfully. As soon as the Chef sends me pictures, I’ll post about it.