I have made many many Jamie recipes over the years and they are almost always good. But recently, the ones we've made have just not been tasty.
I decided to try the gnocchi recipe last Sunday for my "I am in a good mood let me make some good food" mood. Well, the good mood lasted through the two hours of making the gnocchi and ended with the pot of mashed potato that greeted me upon it's disastrous cooking.
Gnocchi, for those of you who don't know, is a potato dumpling that is used as pasta. I love gnocchi, and Jamie's recipe (which he claims is the one from Fifteen) made excellent gnocchi when we were there. So trying the recipe seemed like a no brainer.
I tried to me smart and organize myself in the wee kitchen.
I baked the potatoes, I gathered my ingredients, I took my time. I did a little research online that suggested using as little flour as you possibly could in order to ensure that the gnocchi are light and tasty, but hold together. So I did.
I riced the potatoes, I put in the egg, I put in the flour, I dashed in the nutmeg, I stirred it all up, it held together. Hmmm. I rolled it out, I cut them up, I put them on the tray, and I let them sit for their twenty minutes.
Now, one suggestion that Jamie had that I should have followed was to boil off one of the gnocchi's right away to make sure it holds together. I didn't. I should have. So while I am mad at Jamie, I am also mad at myself.
So I made the sauce.
I put the water on to boil.
I put in the gnocchi. I took them out.
They fell apart.
I collapsed in a heap of disappointment and couldn't photograph the devastation.
Another one bites the potato.
So we ordered Chinese food. Full stop.
6 comments:
Dear Dynagrrl,
While i respect Jamie's adventurous spirit, Brits are not known for their pasta...don't get me wrong, i'm married to a Brit. she is okay with me making this big-ego comment. Her brother's a very talented British chef and we all agree, when it comes to gnocchi, you've got to ask an Italian! mama mia!!! My recipe came from my Nana Rizzo. No nutmeg. Never had to test boil one. hmmm...they've never disintegrated in the pot.
btw, your blog's a blast!
ps i can float you a recipe if you are interested...calabrese...
I'd love a recipe... (And thanks for the compliment on my blog!) While the gnocchi was a disaster, I will happily rise to the challenge again!
Yo dynagrrl,
You've got it. I feel a bit intimidated because this is a recipe without measurements of course. italian mamas never measure ya know.
the ingredients are so simple: 2-3 mashed potatoes OR 1 lb ricotta cheese, 2 eggs, a little water and semolina flour. I prefer to work with ricotta.
Dough consistency is important of course, but not that scarey. add the flour slowly until you have it just easy to work with. cover it with a cotton cloth and get the working surface ready with flour.
cut off a piece of dough and roll it long to 1 inch in diameter. cut into 1 inch pieces. all while working with the dough use flour to keep it from sticking.
next, you dimple them. take a piece between thumb and index finger. rest a piece of dough on the back of a fork, then roll down the back of the fork with the index finger so a dimple forms in the piece of dough.
does that make any sense? don't be afraid to re-dimple the gnocchi piece until you get it right. if you don't mind waiting, i'd like to send some photos of the process. it's funny that you wrote about gnocchi because my girl was just asking me to make them for her and it's been a while...so two birds, one stone.
ask questions if anything doesn't seem clear, okay?
peace
I will try it for sure... thanks for passing it on. Unfortunately, we are starting a kitchen reno this week, so it's going to be awhile, as I will be sans kitchen for a bit! :)
Hello from the gnocchi snob! I have a photo-documentary of my gnocchi making for you. It's a PowerPoint. Do you have an email address I can send it to? I don't think I can attach it in here...or can I? and I am not quite up to blogging on my own...mine is fireflyinthesky_2000@yahoo.com. Let me know? Good luck with the remodel!
Hey dynagrrl,
I finally set up a blog. the gnocchi recipe is up!
http://simplysamadhi.blogspot.com/
Enjoy!
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