Gnoicchi

Yesterday, Spike and I made Gnoicchi.  I had never heard of it before.  I found a recipe with Gnoicchi and then googled it so I would know what it was.  Functionally, it is a home-made potato noodle.  The recipe was super easy and I had all of the ingredients.  So yesterday Spike and I made the Gnoicchi, which is a great activity if you have little people who want to help in the kitchen.

Here is the recipe:
Peel and boil two medium starchy potatoes, like russets.  When the potatoes are cooked but still slightly firm, drain the water, cool and mash them.  Don't add any butter or milk like you would for mashed potatoes, just smoosh them.  Take out one cup of the potatoes.

Add two cups of flour and one egg.

Mix all ingredients until combined.  Pour out onto a floured surface and knead until it forms a ball.  Wrap dough in saran wrap and let rest for 20 minutes.

Divide the dough into fourths.  Roll each fourth into about 1/2 inch roll, like a snake.  Then cut about 1/2 inch pieces off of the snake, dip them in flour and roll off of the tines of a fork.

Then you boil them for four minutes.  You know they are done when they float to the top.

That's it!  Super easy!

Here we are:

In my photos, you can see my dough balls wrapped in plastic, my rolled 'snakes', my cut snakes, and the tin we were putting them in.  Spike and I started about 11 and worked until 1.  Because we have so many people in our family, I made five batches.  It took us a long time!  Spike didn't last through the entire process.

Because I knew it would take so long, we started early in the morning.  But then I piled all of my pasta into a pan thinking it would be fine until dinner.  It wasn't.  Because the noodles were so starchy, they continued to absorb the flour.  By the time I wanted to use them for dinner, they were all stuck together in one giant dough heap like I hadn't done any of the work!  It was super frustrating!

But I remembered reading in one of my research efforts, that I could just drop the dough into the boiling water without shaping it.  So when it was time to make dinner, that is what I did.  They weren't beautiful, but they were still delicious!  The next time I make them, I will just do it right before dinner, or figure out a way to do them differently.

To make dinner, we sauteed garlic in hamburger---while the broccoli was steaming.  Then we added 1 and 1/2 cups of chicken broth to the browned hamburger and garlic.  Then we added about two and a half recipes of the gnoicchi and sprinkled on 1/2 Cup of Parmesan cheese.  Salt and Pepper to taste.

It was delicious!  My kids gobbled it up.  Some of them put their broccoli into it and some of them piled on more cheese and ate it plain.  The recipe was only for the broccoli, chicken broth and garlic.  It suggested shrimp, which we don't like or eat.  And the picture of the gnoicchi from the web had marinara sauce--apparently a very versatile dish.  Happy eating!