I made (whole wheat) gnocchi!

Hey-a! I am so pumped to talk about making gnocchi because I kept putting off making it for weeks. My potatoes were overtaking my kitchen and I kept ignoring them because I didn't want the mess or to do the peeling. Of course I decided to make a large batch to freeze some and to use up the aforementioned pile of potatoes.

I decided to roll up my sleeves and get to work. I started with about 10 potatoes and peeled and boiled them until fork tender and let them cool in a colander until I could handle them.

Next up: the potato ricer, yes! I should have snapped a pic of the action because it reminded me of childhood and those play doh sets that you shoved the play doh through different shapes. 

    When I was done it was quite the pile. At this point I realized I was nuts for doing such a big batch. No turning back now. I dug a little hole in the middle and kept going.

I guessed that two eggs would do it and about 3 cups of whole wheat flour. I was basically making things up as I went along. This is definitely the best way to make a dish you know nothing about. I think at some point I panicked and tossed in some salt since potatoes can use some flava.

Now that I had the disaster of flour, eggs, and potatoes I started mixing with a fork. I started channeling Mario Batali since every episode of his show included him whipping up some pasta like so. Naturally, I opted against finding orange crocs to put on and just kept to his well pasta method and left my impression at that.

After the mixing I had a mess of crumbs, perfect.

I smushed the mess together.

Then I kneaded. I could have done this all day. So fun.

I took small sections and rolled them out.

Cut them into even chunks.

Then just for fun rolled them on the back side of a fork to get the little ridges. This wasn't really necessary but looked sweet.

Finally I dropped them into boiling water until these little suckers floated to the top which took a few minutes.

I am so pleased with the outcome. The gnocchi turned out perfectly; the gnocchi was tender and delicate.  I tossed the gnocchi with some shrimp, peas, and homemade spinach-walnut pesto. It was perfect.

Quick tip on freezing: a girlfriend recommended I freeze them on a baking sheet before tossing them into a bag to freeze. I am so glad she imparted that tip because otherwise I would have frozen clumps of gnocchi.

This is so simple you don't even need a recipe...maybe. Leave me a comment if you would like more details on this recipe.

I hope you give this a whirl!

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