There is nothing as delicious as light, pillowy gnocchi. Add to that the flavorful flesh of the purple potato and you have a real winner. This purple potato gnocchi version is from Veneto and Lazio, which uses eggs, unlike the gnocchi of Piedmont, which does not use eggs. Scouring the gnocchi takes a few minutes, but it’s worth it for each gnocchi to catch a thin sauce like this butter-garlic-sage sauce.
Purple potato gnocchi
Author: Pizza today
Type of recipe: entry
- 16 ounces of purple potatoes
- 1 egg
- 1 cup flour (Preferably Italian “00”) and more for rolling
- 1 ¼ tsp salt
- 5 tablespoons unsalted butter
- 3 peeled and crushed garlic cloves
- 5 leaves, fresh sage
- Parmigiano Reggiano to finish
- Peel the purple potatoes and put them in a large pot of boiling water for 25 minutes.
- Remove with a slotted spoon and put in a food processor (or food mill or potato grater) and let cool for 5 minutes.
- Mash the potatoes in the food processor until the mixture is smooth. Cool until mixture is room temperature.
- Place the egg in a large bowl and stir with a fork, add salt and the potatoes.
- Add half the flour and knead with a spoon or a spatula, gradually adding more flour until all is used. The dough should be smooth, soft and slightly sticky.
- While kneading the dough, boil water in a 5-quart pot. Do not add salt or the gnocchi will stick together.
- Roll the dough out on the table into ½-inch diameter snake-like rolls.
- Cut each inch and toss the pieces in the flour. You can use the underside of a fork with the tines back on the counter to roll each piece towards the end of the tines. This should produce gnocchi that have ridges on a convex side and a smooth concave side. (You can also use “Rigagnocchi, this is a small fluted board used to make ridges on pasta like garganelli.)
- While you roll the gnocchi, place the garlic butter and sage in a large sauté pan to simmer on low. Stir to incorporate the flavors. The sauce is ready when the butter is light golden and the foam disappears.
- Keep warm and discard the garlic if desired.
- When the water boils, add the gnocchi 15-20 at a time. They will sink to the bottom but eventually float on top of the water.
- When all the gnocchi have floated, wait 20 seconds before removing them with a slotted spoon.
- Quickly place the cooked gnocchi on a towel to dry (water will spoil the sauce.) and then into the hot garlic-sage sauce.
- Put the gnocchi in a bowl and top with the sauce and grated Parmigiano Reggiano and the cooked sage leaves and serve warm.
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