Truffled Gnocchi with Peas & Chanterelles
I have a list of things that I have never made before but want to. It seems like the list keeps growing and growing. Home-made gnocchi has always been on my list. I have always loved gnocchi done right. Done right? I suppose you won’t know what this means until you’ve eaten gnocchi “done right”. It’s light. It’s what I imagine the sensation of floating on clouds to be (of course, translated to the sensation of what that would feel like in my mouth). Have I lost you?
My friend “A” used to be a cook in Gramercy Tavern. She started there around the same time that Nick Anderer had started (side note: Great book to read… Heat: An Amateur’s Adventures as Kitchen Slave, Line Cook, Pasta-Maker, and Apprentice to a Dante-Quoting Butcher in Tuscany
More recently, I went to a less known restaurant, Sorella, and had a gnocchi dish there. It was also phenomenal. So phenomenal that the party of eight I was with ended up ordering 3 more servings of it (side note: this restaurant serves sharing portions, that means four servings = a whole lot of gnocchi). It too was light and fluffy. It melted in my mouth. As did the gnocchi I had at Del Posto - which should probably go without saying, but fantastic!
And so began my mission to make a light-weight gnocchi from scratch. But then came this never ending move that I have been going through, and this temporary apartment that I am living in is not equipped with my standard kitchen equipment (equipment that is lonely and boxed up in storage currently). So it was last Sunday, and I was standing on a long line at Whole Foods. The most recent Saveur There was a delightful looking recipe for a Truffled Gnocchi with Peas and Chanterelle’s from Sportello Restaurant in Boston, MA. I wanted to make it right away yet knew that i did not have the tools to. What turned into a $5.00 purchase turned into a $55.00 purchase as I don’t have a mill in my temporary kitchen. So I bought one, the OXO Good Grips Food Mill … determined to get this right. Well the mill I bought stunck. I hate to complain, but something this bad should not cost $50.00. Thank God I had my friend over because it took two people to do it (one to hold it down, the other to turn the knob), and we still struggled with it. It took forever to mill the potatoes, but with perseverance, we prevailed. I was very happy with how this dish and the gnocchi turned out. Much much better than most restaurant gnocchi’s I have tried (yet still working to the Sorella or Gramercy standard, but close, trust me, extremely and wonderfully close). And it was far, far better than I had ever hoped for… very light and fluffy and perfectly accompanied by the pea and chanterelle sauce. I highly, highly suggest you try this recipe. I will certainly make it again and again. I loved it! Can’t wait to make it again. Please note… the text below in red font is where I deviated from the recipe and is in my own words.
Truffled Gnocchi with Peas and Chanterelles |
| SERVES 4 The secret to making these pillow-soft gnocchi (from Boston’s Sportello) is to knead the dough as little as possible; if it’s overworked, the gnocchi become gluey and tough.
FOR THE GNOCCHI: FOR THE SAUCE: 1. Make the gnocchi: Boil potatoes in a 4-qt. saucepan of salted water until tender, about 20 minutes. Drain the potatoes; let cool slightly and peel. Work potatoes through a food mill or a potato ricer onto a lightly floured surface. Sprinkle the flour and salt over the potatoes and mix together with your hands. Form a mound and create a well in the center; add truffle oil and egg. Gently knead dough until it just comes together, adding a little more flour if it begins to stick. I have done the well method when I make home-made pasta, but found it harder to do so with making gnocchi. It started as a well but was later just pushed together and then softly kneaded together. I made sure not to over-knead it, just simply work it until it became a cohesive mass. I had only used about a cup (or even less) of flour to achieve the consistency of dough that I thought made sense. And once cooked, it was perfect. It’s okay to question recipe’s, they don’t always translate. It worked out for me to realize that it did not translate with the mass of milled potatoes that I had. With cooking, go with your gut… it’s probably right. 2. Lightly flour a parchment paper–lined baking sheet and set aside. Using a rolling pin, roll dough to a 1⁄2″ thickness. Cut into 1⁄2″-wide strips. Roll each strip between your hands and the work surface to form ropes. Cut each rope into 1″ segments. Working with one segment at a time, roll it down the back of a small fork so that the tines make ridges on the surface of the dough. More specifically, start by positioning a 1″ dough segment on the back of a dinner fork; then slowly roll the segment down the length of the fork tines while simultaneously pressing lightly on the dough with your thumb to form a shallow indentation in the back. The resulting indentation and striations will help sauce cling to the gnocchi. When finished, transfer gnocchi to the prepared baking sheet; cover with a kitchen towel and refrigerate until ready to cook. 3. Make the sauce: Bring a 6-qt. pot of salted water to a boil. Heat oil in a 12″ skillet over medium-high heat. Add mushrooms to skillet and cook, stirring occasionally, until light brown, about 5 minutes. Raise heat to high; add cream, peas, and thyme and cook, stirring occasionally, until cream reduces by half. Season mushroom sauce with salt and pepper and remove skillet from heat. Boil gnocchi in the salted water until they float, about 2 minutes. Using a slotted spoon, transfer gnocchi to mushroom sauce, add chives, and toss to combine. |
| This recipe was first published in Saveur in Issue #119
PLEASE LET ME KNOW WHAT YOU THINK ABOUT THIS ONE… I AM VERY EXCITED ABOUT - LOVE IT. |
where you can learn about Nicks history but much more so Mario Batali’s history), and they worked there side by side. “A” had left professional cooking a couple of years back and joined the 9-5 pace with me. We went to Gramercy one night with a client. Nick came out to greet “A”. He ended up giving us a personalized tasting menu of new recipes that he was trying out… somewhat off the standard of what Gramercy had been doing for years. His background had been under Mario Batali and as Mario had done, Nick also went to Italy to discover Italian cooking first hand. His six course tasting was amazing. It was Gramercy cuisine, yet refreshed… reinvented. There was pasta mixed into the more expected game/meats and seasoning, yet far better. One of my favorite dishes that he gave us was a gnocchi based dish. It was at this point that I had experienced “gnocchi done right”. It’s hard to describe it, but it was perfect. There was no weight to it. It was wonderful.
looked enticing. I thought to myself, “Natalie, do you need to spend another $5.00.” (Mind you, this recession is very evident to me and spending an extra $5.00 is something I am watching) I opened it up while on line just to peruse. Saveur’s April 09 issue is a fantastic issue with some wonderful looking recipes… suffice to say, I took out the extra five bucks and purchased the magazine.
I have never had much luck making gnocchi - they always turn out rather sub-par. These look fantastic though! love the photos.
I was wondering if there was a specific reason to use a food mill instead of a potato ricer. Is the texture different? I don’t have a food mill… never wanted to spend the money. Rather, I’ve wanted to, just haven’t decided to
I’ve always used a ricer when making gniocchi, and it seemed to work well.
What a beautiful meal! My boyfriend loves gnocchi and I love the flavor of truffles so this would be the perfect dish for us to make!
Jon, I don’t think there is much of an outcome difference between the two. The reason I bought the mill is because I actually already have a ricer. The problem is that the ricer is somewhere in a box in storage as I am in the process of moving. So I didn’t want to have two of the same thing. The only difference I saw was a size difference. The mill had three separate “push or grating” sizes whereas my ricer is one solid instrument and only has one “grating” size. But if you get light and great gnocchi from using the ricer, then definitely stick to it.
Hillary, let me know how the dish turns out for you. I love truffles too so the essence of it in the gnocchi was really nice.
Matt, try this recipe out then and let me know what you think. I found that there was not a need for as much flour as the original recipe called for. I would be curious if you came across the same predicament.
J, H, & M … thanks for writing!
Your sauce and gnocchi dish look scrumptious. I think you should wash that food mill really well and return it. Thanks for stopping by my blog too.
Linda, I really should. Didn’t think of that as I had used it and assumed it was too late to return… but I’ll give it a try.
I wish I could nod my head and have that is front of me right now - lovely site too
On the last day of my life I want to eat this meal. Seriously.
Laura
Yes, but I hope there are many many years before you have this dish