Weekend Plate: Carlene Says Hello!

If you haven’t been introduced to gnocchi, now is the time. Gnocchi are delicious Italian dumplings made from potatoes. During the snowy weekend I had some time on my hands and, like Jeffrey Steingarten, when I get board I cook (well, he says he roasts a chicken, but I had other plans).

The recipe starts out by cubing some floury potatoes to boil. After straining them, they are dried out on the stove. By adding egg, flour, and salt, the potatoes become dough. At this point I chopped up some curly parsley to throw in because quite honestly, if the texture wasn’t right I needed to compensate with something.

Next came the difficult part, rolling the gnocchi. I rolled them into almost a flattened meatball. Gnocchi are usually served with an indented fork pattern in them, which helps the sauce cling to the dumpling. I then put them in the freezer individually lined up on Aluminum foil so I could (presuming they turned out to be edible) have some on hand for another night.

After the gnocchi are frozen, although some recipes say after a 10 minute rest, they are boiled for 3-5 minutes or until they float to the surface. Many times they are served in a brown butter sauce (hey, I never said this was low calorie). But if you need an excuse, potatoes are high in potassium.