Jean Tang: I did gnocchi but whenever I try to make it at home, it comes out all goofy and heavy. We’re at an Italian restaurant called Gusto. And here, their gnocchi is as light as air. Let’s go see how the pros do it.
So I’m in the kitchen of Gusto with executive chef Amanda Freitag. I’ve always thought that gnocchi was incredibly hard dish to me and especially hard dish to make light.
Amanda Freitag: Yes, there are a few tricks of the gnocchi tray. Place the potatoes in cold water and we’re going to add some salt. So you boil the potato for 45 minutes to one hour or until they slide off a knife.
Okay, so you’re just going to peel off the skin and you can see that the potatoes are holding together when it’s completely cooked and then once you have it peeled, you’re going put it right into your food mill or you could use a potato ricer. And then you just want to make sure that all of the potato goes through. Okay you don’t want to mush it back together but you’re going to need to get it into a bowl.
Jean Tang: Because that would take the air out.
Amanda Freitag: Yeah. The first ingredient that I’m going to put in is the salt while the potato is still warm, it can melt in and some cracked black pepper, put in the half cup flour. So we’re going to need an egg yolk for the fats and just al little bit of binder. And the cheese gives it a little bit of creaminess and a little bit of fresh flavor. Start to mix it rightly and you have to use your hands. If you don’t use your hands, you can’t feel it and you have to really feel the texture of the dough and if it’s all over your hands and it’s wrong.
If it comes off to your hands then it’s right.
Jean Tang: Okay.
Amanda Freitag: I’m starting to form a dough.
Jean Tang: So you’re tossing it more than anything.
Amanda Freitag: Yes. I just started by tossing it and now, I’m starting to kind push it together a little more. You still want to see the ingredients without them all to mush together. I’m going to take some of that flour from the table and put it back into the dough and it’s feeling pretty good to me, not sticking to my hand.
Jean Tang: And you’re still not really needing it like you would with the dough.
Amanda Freitag: Exactly. Okay, so it’s starting to form perfectly into a log and it’s not sticking and what you really shouldn’t work with something that’s going to be long, too out of your range so we’re just going to start with half. So take half aside for a minute and then just work with this half and what you’re going to do roll it back and forth with even pressure and the goal is to elongate it to a cord.
Jean Tang: Oh boy.
Amanda Freitag: So what’s going to happen is your hands are going to start in the center and with even pressure, you’re going to go outwards. So depending on how big you like your gnocchi and you can get really long thin cord or you can keep it a little wider. I’m going to put just a tiny bit of flour across the top just sort of that one I’m cutting it. It doesn’t stick too much but I like to have a nice little cut of gnocchi.
So once we’ve cut our gnocchi, we’re pretty much ready to go and you don’t want your gnocchi to hang around too long before you cook it. Today, we’re going to make a very seasonal—mushrooms here that I’m going to use, some chanterelles, this is a honshimeji and this is a hand of the wood or maitake.
So I’m just going to break them with my hands. So I’m just picking a few leaves of the fresh thyme because I just feel like thyme and mushrooms are great together and I’m going to use a little bit of freshly chopped shallots and that’s it. I’m going to start my sauce before the gnocchi go in.
So I want to have a medium to hot pan and I’m going to start with olive oil, you put that mushrooms in and I’m not going to move them right away. I want them to get a little bit of color and then I’m going to season them of course. Don’t forget to season. I’m just going to toss them around and you can see that they have a beautiful – on them. So I’m going to put the shallots in because they don’t take too long to cook.
Jean Tang: Okay, so you’re putting them in there.
Amanda Freitag: Yes, and also the thyme is going to go in now. Super easy. You should always use a salted water, I know it seems like a lot of salt along the way but you always want to season and this will take anywhere from two to three minutes as long as gnocchi floats, that’s when it’s ready.
To make sauces for your pasta, Italian cooks use pasta water. They don’t necessarily use a stock or they don’t use you know, they use butter here and there but it is water. Gnocchi was floating and then we put it into our sauce and we’re going to put it back onto the heat and then we’re going to bring it up to a boil so the sauce and gnocchi will come together.
Parmesan grated and that thickens it as well. Now you can see that the sauce is thickened and it’s perfectly coating everything. More texture on the mushroom, the gnocchi is on the way. Delicious.
Jean Tang: So incredibly light and I just can’t believe how easy that was.
Amanda Freitag: It really is.
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