"gnocchi" news and stories

Gnocchi -- the Italian dumplings generally made with a mixture of potato and flour -- can range from light and airy to dense and lumpy. Kitchen Daily expert Marco Canora has a few tricks for making the former. His gnocchi is wonderfully tender, and it's topped with a rich butter sauce perfumed with fragrant fresh sage.

Gnocchi waiting to be cooked. Photo: Marco Fedele, Flickr.

• Carl Cianci of Peppercorn's Grill shares the secrets behind perfecting airy gnocchi and offers a recipe.
• The story of Margaret Sapir and Mitch Rapoport, and how they jumped from corporate America to the world of bread-making, whipping up the increasingly popular Pain de Campagne.
• In pies and teamed with sweet wine, pears serve as the base of wonderful desserts.
• Restaurants: White Horse Country Pub has balanced history-heavy walls with a "creative" menu of classic pub fare, while Panda Palace mixes uncommon dishes with traditional entrees for a tasty and inexpensive dinner.
• Recipes: Everyday Stir-Fry, Portobello and Goat Cheese Sandwich, Corn and Tomato Salad, Roquefort Stuffed Pork Tenderloin with Roasted Pears.

If you want to get into pasta making but don't want to pay for a machine or go through the effort of rolling it out by hand, there is an alternative: gnocchi.

In the above clip, Giorgio Locatelli whips up some rather tasty looking gnocchi from scratch. There's no bowl involved in this method -- just the old-school ring on the countertop with the egg in the middle. What's particularly interesting is his insistence on boiling the potatoes with the skin on -- not something you see with other gnocchi techniques out there.

He might have a tendency to lick his fingers and not wash them, but methinks the recipe will do just as well without that added touch.

Lidia Bastianich has long been one of my favorite chefs. This may seem strange, given my ardent vegetarianism (and gradual shift toward veganism) and her propensity for meat dishes, but I believe that a good chef is more than just the dishes they create. Presence, skills, and love of food are what separate a good chef from a great one.

Bastianich has the presence and authority of an accomplished chef, while still managing to maintain that grandmotherly charm. She's a strong woman (mother, breast-cancer survivor) who has taught people of the likes of Mario Batali, yet she is never boastful or arrogant - just confident and knowledgeable.

My favorite of her tv episodes are the ones where she makes her own pasta, expertly making little nests with the dough, dropping the egg into the center, and kneading until she winds up with a fresh, doughy ball of goodness. Watching her make gnocchi is great fun - she gently twists tiny pieces of dough into the perfect shapes, all while chatting to the camera.

So, obviously, I was thrilled to find Epicurious's "Easter with Ease" section, featuring what Bastianich does best: traditional Italian food with a fresh twist. From braised artichokes with pecorino for the veggies to braised lamb shoulder for the carnivores (and a decadent-sounding Limoncello tiramisu for dessert with a whopping pound of mascarpone cheese), she's got it all covered.

But you don't have to celebrate Easter to enjoy this food - make these recipes anytime!

I must have sweet potatoes on the brain, because is the second post I'm writing this week that involves them. This time I haven't actually done the cooking, I'm simply salivating over the Sweet Potato Gnocchi that Brys made over at Cookthink this weekend.

I've never made gnocchi on my own. I've thought about it more than once, but always talked myself out of the idea because I'd heard from so many folks that it's really hard to get it right. This is why I'm doubly intrigued by this post, because Brys didn't even use a recipe, he just headed out and did it by feel (documenting each step as he went with some really lovely pictures). There are lots of things that I can cook by feel, but homemade pasta is not one of them. However, he makes it look so easy that I think I'm going to have to give it a go sometime soon.