Hot Potato: Purple Gnocchi in Brown Butter with Dukkha, Citrus zest, Smoke cheddar & Breadcrumbs

Good Night everyone! I hope all is well in the world of Culinary Arts. So you all remember when I went shopping two weeks ago and picked up a bunch of random items from the market? Today, well tonight I made Purple Sweet Potato Gnocchi. I’ve also never made this before but it seems that the purple potato’s have almost the same amount of starch as an Idaho potato. I managed to make 40 pieces of gnocchi out of this recipe and while most people like to use a whole egg, I use just the egg yolk. It makes the gnocchi richer.

The key things to remember about making gnocchi are (1) you don’t want the potato to cool down too much, this will make the process a lot harder. (2) Don’t over work the dough, if you over work potato starch it can become very gloopy and sticky, which would mean you would have to add more flour than needed. (3) Some people may disagree but I find baking a potato on a bed of salt helps dehydrate it better.

It has been three years since I have made Gnocchi and there some things in life you don’t forget. My old friend & boss Alex Grimley was the first person to teach me how to make gnocchi, even then it took me 4 months to get it right without having to ask him constantly to show me or is this correct. I have a lot to thank him for and that is one of them. You see I will type up this recipe and tell you how to do it, but you really need to have an understanding on how to feel if the gnocchi are ready to go. Too many people make the dough and don’t understand why it isn’t firm or why its falling apart. Somethings, you just gain from experience. I will try my hardest to make this understandable for you the eager home cook.

Let’s go!

2 Gnocchi (1 lb. in weight)

2 egg yolk

1 Cup All purpose flour

1 Pair of hands

Nutmeg (this is optional)

Kosher Salt

Preheat your oven to 400 F. Get a baking sheet or pan, pour salt on the base. Place the potatoes on top, take a fork or knife and just give the potato a few stabs to allow the seam to come out while its baking. Put your potatoes in for one hour. 

While that’s going just get your other ingredients out and ready. If you have a clean counter top, then we can use it for kneading the dough. If you don’t want to put it on the counter top, then grab the biggest stainless steel bowl you have.

Please get a medium sauce pot of salted water on the fire, boiling and ready for your potato’s.

Has it been an hour yet? Okay good! Now take the potatoes out and cut them in half. Please be careful to not burn yourself when the steam comes out. 

Leave them to sit for 5/7 minutes. You want to be able to push the inside and feel the heat with out totally burning your fingertips off, you will need them for later. Once the potato is ready, you can push it through a strainer, well, if you have one of those perforated bowls then use that. If not, then just mash it a bit.

Now add a little under a ¼ cup of flour to the potato, and knead it a little, then add one egg yolk and add more flour. You may not need all the flour but once you roll it around and work it, just feel it out. The only way to describe this is, feel your cheek. If the gnocchi are a little harder than your cheek you on the right track. Now roll your dough on your table into a 6-inch log and cut it in half. 

Take one half and let’s roll it ¾ inch thick. Be sure to have flour on the table so it doesn’t stick. Grab your knife and cut the Gnocchi into ½ inch squares and put on a floured pan for storage.

Before we cook the gnocchi be sure to have another pan (I used a glass Pyrex dish), just add some oil so they don’t stick. If you don’t have a glass Pyrex then use what u have, line it with parchment paper and add oil.

We’ve got boiling water right? Okay so we are going to drop some gnocchi in the water and leave them until they float, it usually takes a minute. We don’t want to drop all the gnocchi in at the same time. If you do that, the water wont boil anymore. Once we have cooked the gnocchi just place them in your oiled pan and allow them to cool for when you want to cook and prepare a dish later.

A lot of people like gnocchi because its heavy. Its typically served in brown butter and sage. I did mine in brown butter, citrus zest (see post from last week Friday), Dukkha, breadcrumbs and oregano. I love Gnocchi.