I was reading the paper today, with a review of a really good restaurant in Toronto (Da Gianni & Maria Trattoria, on St. Clair Avenue West). The reviewer, Marty, said the gnocchi at the restaurant was absolutely heavenly…
It sounds delicious! Can anybody tell me about this dish and how to make it?
You can probably pick up some gnocchi at your grocery store, which will be delicious until such time as you’ve tried real gnocchi, and then you’ll never be able to go back. That’s my experience, at least.
They’re potato-and-flour dumplings, essentially: light and puffy like a cloud, with just a bit of a chew to them. They’re bland, but absorb sauce flavors marvelously. A local restaurant has homemade gnocchi, and the first bite of them is ecstatic.
I know Cooks Illustrated had a recipe for them a few years ago, but I don’t remember how it worked; has anyone made them at home?
Daniel
We love gnocchi!
There was only one restaurant in town that I know of that served it and I have been looking for it since. Now we just buy it from the grocery store, it should be near the imported italian sauces.
What it is basically is potato pasta. They look like huge bugs, larva kinda. But they are awesome and very filling. You can sevre them with any sauce, red, white, pesto - it’s good with all.
I’ve made 'em from scratch - every Christmas since I was a kid. Time-consuming, but not time-consuming like ravioli. Basically, you make the dough, roll it out into ropes, cut the ropes into chunks and roll the chunks by pressing your thumb into the dough blob and doing a little “press-and-pull” action.
This recipe online is pretty similar to my Mom’s: gnocchi . We always boil, rather than bake, the potatoes, and we skip the fork bit - it’s pretty and it holds the sauce a bitbetter, but it’s just as good without the ridges.
If you buy, rather than make your own, stay away from the kind in vacuum packs in the pasta aisle (sorry, Pinkmarabou - I’ve tried your brand and it has the same “dry flour” off taste that other vacuum packed gnocchi have) and look for them in the frozen section. Should be right near the frozen ravioli.
In a pinch, I’ve recently used frozen gnocchi instead of egg dumplings in a pork-and-sauerkraut crockpot dinner, and they make a great chewy dumpling substitute.
You guys are gods among culinary chefs. grovels Thank you so much!
LifeOnWry, I think I’ll try out that recipe tonight 
Not a big deal, no harm - no foul. I’ve never attempted to make any on my own, so thank you so much for the recipe! They don’t have them in the frozen section at my store, but I usually like imported foods so I didn’t think there was too much more to them. It’s quick and easy, which with two persons with a full-time schedule and the DH going to school part-time, sometimes the quick-and-easy route works better. But I absolutely will try that recipe. Thanks again! 
I so want to make this.
The recipe that LifeOnWry linked to has the potatoes boiled with the skin on.
Seems to me that it is a heck of a lot easier to peal them before boiling. And, that way they’re good and hot for the ricer.
Does it make a difference?
Whenever I’ve made potato gnocchi according to a recipe, they’ve seemed a little too soft and insubstantial to me. I like them best with a little bit more bite. I’ve fixed this by increasing the ratio of flour to potatoes and kneading the dough a bit more to develop the gluten. We like 'em best with garlicky butter, minced parsley and lots of grated parmesan all over 'em.
Not a huge difference, but it does make a little bit. If you boil them already peeled, they tend to soak up more water, making your proportions a little wonky.
pugluvr - I like 'em chewy, too. Thing is, like any recipe you’ve been using for 30-odd years straight, you add a little of this, subtract a little of that, and eventually you have no idea anymore how they’re SUPPOSED to be made - which is why I linked to epicurious, so newbies have a starting point to work from. (My “own” recipe sometimes involves pinching off bits of dough and shoving them down my sister’s cleavage.)