To make gnocchi you need 4 ingredients. You have to have 3 large potatoes or sweet potatoes. I used 3 medium potatoes. You should use a cup and a half of normal flour. Then add an egg and a good pinch of salt. I used self-rising flour because of the lockdown I didn’t want to go out just to buy flour. Because I didn’t use plain flour my gnocchi came out bigger than it should be. So I chopped it up smaller when I boiled the second batch. Try to stick to using plain flour. Also, it takes time to make this so it’s a good lockdown recipe if you have extra time to cook. It took me about an hour and 30 minutes to make gnocchi.

Ingredients

3 large potatoes

1½ cup of plain white flour

1 egg

A teaspoon of salt

Method

Boil your potatoes with the skin on. This keeps the potatoes moisture inside. I was lazy so I unpeeled my potatoes and boiled them. But, this isn’t the traditional way.

Once the potatoes have cooled peel them and grate them into a bowl. I grated mine when they were still hot and used a dish towel to protect my hand. The hotter the potatoes are the fluffier your gnocchi will be.

Mold your grated potatoes into a ball then make an indent in the middle.

I kept my mix in the bowl but for some people, it’s easier to put the grated potatoes on a floured surface.

Add your flour, salt, and cracked egg in the well of the potatoes.

Start kneading everything together.

This is when I transferred my gnocchi mix onto a floured surface.

If your mix is too sticky add more flour.

Then roll out the dough and cut it into small pieces. They should be bite-sized.

After that, you can use a fork to create ridges to make your gnocchi pretty. But, you can skip this step.

Boil a pot of water with a pinch of salt. Then boil your gnocchi once it floats to the top of the water it’s cooked.

Remove the gnocchi out of the pot with a slotted spoon to get rid of extra water.

And that’s your gnocchi done. I recommend you fry yours though like I did in butter or oil. I fried mine in olive oil and added basil pesto to it with pieces of fried bacon.

Extra info:

The serving size is rather large. You can store uncooked gnocchi which has been shaped in the freezer on a baking tray.

I adapted my recipe from this one: https://www.buzzfeed.com/hannahloewentheil/easy-homemade-gnocchi-tutorial

Read this article for more details on how to freeze and cook frozen gnocchi: https://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/gnocchi-101335

I love gnocchi. Italian food is my favourite kind of food. When I was living in Germany I ate lots of store-bought gnocchi. Making it myself during the lockdown in Cape Town from scratch and not messing up the recipe made me feel super happy. I hope you enjoy this recipe to even if it’s not authentically Italian.

Thank you for reading my blog I appreciate your support. Stay safe and feel free to comment. I love any feedback and I’m more than willing to answer any questions you might have.