Warning: This is a lot of work! But it’s absolutely delicious !
You need:
4 medium sized russet potatoes
4 cups white flour
2 eggs
1/4 cup fresh parsley
Grape seed oil
5 garlic cloves
1/2 white onion
5 green onions
10 roma tomatoes
1 tbsp oregano
1/4 cup parmesan
1/2 cup heavy cream
Your favourite hot sauce (optional)
Salt and pepper
3/4 cup Mozzarella
3/4 cup Old Cheddar
3/4 cup Parmigiano reggiano
Do this:
Okay ! First lets make the gnocchi.
Peel and boil your potatoes until completely soft. Then place each potato into a ricer. This will create a perfectly smooth consistency. Do this to all 4 and you should have something that looks like this:
Let the potatoes slightly cool, then mix in the egg and flour. I also took some of the fresh parsley and sprinkled in a little. Kneed this with your hands to create dough.
Dust the counter with flour, grab a chunk of your dough, roll it into a snake like shape. Then cut into bite sized pieces.
Keep doing this until you have used all the dough. When you are done you should have about 150-175 pieces.
I placed all my pieces on baking sheets just for safe keeping.
Now set this aside and lets work on the sauce.
In a large pan heat enough grape seed oil to cover the pan. Then dice up your parsley, onion (white/green) and garlic and fry in the pan.
Once everything is starting to soften add in the tomatoes. You want these diced and keep the juices. Add the oregano, your favourite hot sauce, salt and pepper (to taste).
Let this all boil for about 15 minutes.
Then add in the parmesan and cream. Stir to create a beautiful rose colour.
Now, lets get back to that gnocchi. Boil water in a medium sized pot.
Once this is boiling you want to place about 8-10 pieces of gnocchi into the pot and as soon as they rise to the top, give them 30 seconds and remove.
Now place into the pasta sauce !
This is time consuming. Do this until you have cooked them all.
Because you are constantly scooping the gnocchi out of the water (+evaporation), your water level will go down. Half way through you may have to start over and boil a new pot, then continue.
Once you are done you should have all your gnocchi pieces mixed into your sauce.
Now its time to bake this.
You can make one big casserole or do a few small ones. I opted for 4 small dishes – totally your decision!
Whether you are doing one or multiple, you want to grease the oven safe dish you are using, put a layer of gnocchi on the bottom, layer of the cheeses, layer of gnocchi, one more cheese layer.
Bake this at 325 until everything is warm and the cheese is melted. Then place under broil until the cheese bubbles, careful not to burn !
Serves 6-8.
RACHEL SCHOUTSEN 