There is nothing as luscious as light, pillowy gnocchi. Add to that the flavorful flesh of the purple potato and you have a real winner. This Purple Potato Gnocchi version is from the Veneto and Lazio which use egg as opposed to the gnocchi of the Piedmont that do not use egg. Putting ridges on the gnocchi takes a few minutes to master but is well worth it for each gnocchi to capture a thin-type sauce as this butter-garlic-sage sauce.
Purple Potato Gnocchi
Author: Pizza Today
Recipe type: entree
Ingredients
- 16 ounces purple potatoes
- 1 egg
- 1 cup flour (Preferably Italian “00”) and more for rolling
- 1 ¼ teaspoon salt
- 5 tablespoons unsalted butter
- 3 skinned and smashed garlic cloves
- 5 leaves, fresh sage
- Parmigiano Reggiano for finish
Instructions
- Skin the purple potatoes and drop into a large pot of boiling water for 25 minutes.
- Retrieve with a slotted spoon and set in food processor, (or food mill or potato ricer) and let cool for 5 minutes.
- Crush the potatoes in the food processor until the mix is smooth. Cool until the mix is room temperature.
- Place the egg in a large bowl and scramble with a fork add the salt and the potatoes.
- Add half the flour and knead with a spoon or a spatula gradually adding more flour until all is used. The dough should be smooth, soft and slightly sticky.
- While kneading the dough, boil water in a 5-quart pot. Do not add salt or the gnocchi will stick together.
- Roll the dough out on the counter into ½-inch diameter snake-like rolls.
- Cut every inch and toss the pieces in the flour. You can use the underside of a fork with the tines resting on the counter to roll each piece toward the end of the tines. This should produce gnocchi that have ridges on a convex side and a smooth concave side. (You may also use “Rigagnocchi, this is a small ridged board used to make ridges on pasta like garganelli.)
- While you are rolling the gnocchi, place the butter garlic and sage into a large saute pan to simmer on low. Stir to incorporate the flavors. The sauce is ready when the butter is light-golden, and the foam disappears.
- Keep warm and discard the garlic if you wish.
- When water is boiling, add the gnocchi 15-20 at a time. They will sink to the bottom but eventually float on top of the water.
- After all the gnocchi have floated, wait 20 seconds before taking out with a slotted spoon.
- Place the cooked gnocchi quickly on a towel to dry, (Water will ruin the sauce.) then into the warm garlic-sage sauce.
- Place the gnocchi into a bowl and top with the sauce and Grated Parmigiano Reggiano as well as the cooked sage leaves and serve hot.
