Cook this: gnocchi with brown butter sauce
With potato gnocchi, it’s all about achieving a “light and fluffy” texture.
“You want it to really have that pillow,” says Adam Leonti, who is co-author of the cookbook Flour Lab along with Katie Parla.
To achieve it — rather than mixing the dough with his hands — he cuts the ingredients together with a bench scraper, as he would when making biscuits. Freshly milled rye flour — which is low in gluten — further encourages the cumulous effect, but it also adds unique flavour.
“Sometimes you see people put mushrooms inside the gnocchi or gorgonzola. How cool is it to have rye, which is one of those things that is so massively flavourful in such a small dosage,” says Leonti. “It’s that umami bomb that sometimes you’re looking for.”
In using rye, he also wanted to highlight the fact that freshly milled flour isn’t just about baking bread. “It can be monumental to your pastas and to anything else it gets in contact with,” says Leonti.
And as much as Flour Lab is centred on providing the background people need to start milling their own grains, and cooking and baking with fresh flour, he emphasizes that the dish itself is all about balance.
“I didn’t want the gnocchi to be so austere and only be about rye. The potato is still there and butter is incredible,” says Leonti. “I didn’t want those elements to be lacking in the recipe. Yes, it’s about this shining ingredient but there are other ingredients people love, too. It’s about them working harmoniously, not so much about (the flour) being one and only … It should be a little bit more seamless, and a little bit prettier and subtle.”
POTATO GNOCCHI DOUGH
Ingredients:
• 900 g (about 2 lb) potatoes (I use half Idaho and half Yukon Gold)
• 250 g (2 1/2 cups) rye flour, plus more for dusting
• 3 eggs, beaten
• 175 g (1 1/2 cups) finely grated Parmigiano-reggiano
• 25 g (1 1/2 tbsp) sea salt
• Semolina (see note), for dusting
Directions:
Place the potatoes in a medium pot and cover with cold water. Salt the water and bring to a boil over mediumlow heat. Cook until the potatoes are fork-tender, 40 minutes to 1 hour.
Drain the potatoes and peel them while they are still hot. Pass the potatoes through a ricer and then press them directly onto a work surface. Distribute 2 cups of the flour, eggs and cheese evenly over the potatoes and season with the salt. With a bench scraper, cut the ingredients just until they come together. If the dough seems too wet, add the remaining flour, 2 tablespoons at a time. (You may not need all the flour.) Knead the dough with your hands until the flour and egg are incorporated, about 15 seconds.
With a bench scraper, cut off a 150-gram (5-oz) piece of dough, keeping the remaining dough covered with a clean kitchen towel. Working from the centre outward on a surface lightly dusted with rye flour, roll the dough to form a 1 1/2-inch-thick cord; then cut the cord into equal bite-size pieces. Dust with semolina and set aside on a platter. Repeat with the remaining dough. The gnocchi will keep, uncovered, for 2 days in the refrigerator or, wrapped in plastic wrap, for up to a month in the freezer.
To cook the gnocchi, bring a large pot of water to a boil over high heat. Salt the water. When the salt has dissolved, add the gnocchi in batches and cook until they float, about 3 minutes. Drain and set them aside on a plate. Serve with your choice of sauce (brown butter follows).
Serves: 6 to 8
Note: Semolina is a coarse grind of durum wheat that is often used for dusting peels or kitchen towels used to wrap pasta dough.
BROWN BUTTER
Ingredients:
• 120 g (8 1/2 tbsp) unsalted butter
• Sea salt
• 30 g (1/4 cup) finely grated Parmigiano-reggiano
Directions:
Heat the butter in a medium skillet over medium heat until it has browned, 6 to 8 minutes. Remove the skillet from the heat, add the drained cooked pasta to the skillet and swirl gently to coat. Season with salt to taste.
Serve immediately, sprinkling each portion with some Parmigiano-reggiano.
Serves: 4 to 6