Potato Gnocchi

Ingredients

Instructions

1. 1

   Preheat the oven to 350º F. Place the potatoes on a baking sheet and pierce with a fork. Bake the potatoes until fork-tender, about 1 hour.

2. 2

   While the potatoes are hot, scoop the flesh out of the potatoes and put through a ricer onto a prep board. Make a well in the center. Dust the potatoes with flour and a sprinkle of Kosher salt. Bring a large pot of water to a boil.

3. 3

   Add the egg yolks. Dust with more flour and use a bench knife to start to work the dough together. Do not knead the dough; kneading will activate the gluten in the flour and make the gnocchi dense and gummy. Keep working the dough with your bench knife and adding flour as necessary until the dough forms a ball. Continue folding the dough over until you get a smooth ball. This process should be done quickly--the dough should still be warm.

4. 4

   Once you have a ball of dough, take a piece of the dough and roll it, using your fingers, into a rope. Using a clean bench knife, cut the rope into pieces the size you want your gnocchi to be. Roll the pieces into individual balls and roll the balls on a gnocchi paddle to form ridges. Roll them directly onto a parchment-covered baking sheet. If you do not have a gnocchi paddle, make indentations on your gnocchi using the tines of a fork.

5. 5

   Add a generous amount of salt to a pot of boiling water. Put in 1 or 2 gnocchi to test. The gnocchi will rise to the top of the water when done. If the gnocchi falls apart, you need more flour in the dough. Adjust the dough before forming the rest of your gnocchi.

6. 6

   Finish forming the rest of your gnocchi; cook them in batches in the boiling salted water so that you don't overcrowd your pot. Take them out as they are done.

7. 7

   If you are not using your gnocchi immediately, freeze on a baking sheet sprayed with cooking spray, uncovered. Once frozen, store in a ziplock in the freezer until ready to use. Cook the frozen gnocchi in boiling salted water the same way as fresh. Alternatively, cook the gnocchi while still frozen in a skillet with hot oil, browning, and tossing until cooked through thoroughly.