Gnocchi with Brown Butter and Sage
Prep: 45 Minutes | Cook: 30 Minutes | Resting Time: N/A | Total: 1 hour 15 Minutes
Makes 8 Servings
Ingredients
Recipe Yields 100-125 Gnocchi
Gnocchi
2 lbs Russet Potatoes
1 cup All Purpose Flour + Additional flour for dusting surfaces
1 tbsp Salt
1 Egg
Sage Brown Butter
8 tbsp Butter, in separate 4 tbsp portions
3 leaves Fresh Sage
Salt, to taste
Pepper to taste
Recipe Summary
Make the gnocchi dough
Form the gnocchi
Cook the gnocchi
Make brown butter with sage and set aside in a bowl
Saute and crisp the gnocchi
Add back brown butter sauce to the gnocchi and serve hot
Recipe
To make gnocchi, start by peeling russet potatoes and putting them in a pot of cold water. Keeping the peeled potatoes in cold water will prevent them from oxidizing if you decide to double this recipe or just take your time peeling.
Boil the potatoes until they are fork tender (about 25-30 minutes). The potatoes are ready when they are easily pierced by a fork with little to no give. Remove from water and allow to cool.
To ensure pillowy soft gnocchi, allow the potatoes to cool to a temperature that they are safe to handle. If you have a potato ricer, rice the potatoes into a separate bowl. If you don’t have a potato ricer, you can use a masher.
When mashing the potatoes using a potato masher, it’s extremely important to not overwork the potatoes. You want to make sure all the large chunks are broken up, but once all the large pieces are gone, set the masher aside. Overworking the potatoes with a potato masher can cause the potatoes to get gummy and in turn give you gummy gnocchi instead of the soft pillows of potato you’re looking for.
In a large mixing bowl, add flour, egg, and salt to the potatoes. Work with your hands and mix until the mix is fully uniform. The gnocchi mixture should feel moist, but shouldn’t be sticking to your hands. If the mixture sticks to your hands too much, add flour (1 tbsp at a time) and work into the dough. Keep adding flour until the mixture still feels moist, but is no longer sticking to your hands. If the mixture feels too dry, add water 1 tbsp at a time and work into the dough in a similar fashion.
On a large cutting board, dust the surface with some flour to prevent the gnocchi from sticking. Divide the gnocchi mixture into 4 equal portions and roll into small balls. Take one of the gnocchi mixture portions and run back and forth between your hands in a back and forth motion. This will cause the dough to elongate and turn into more of a cylinder. Transfer the dough to the cutting board and begin rolling the dough back and forth with your finger tips and applying slight pressure. You don’t want to indent the dough, but you want to stretch it out uniformly until it becomes a long log of dough.
At this point you can make your gnocchi as thin as you want, however I recommend stopping once the log is about 1” in diameter. This will give you a perfect size gnocchi that won’t fall apart when cooked.
Cut the gnocchi log into 1/2” pieces. Each log will yield about 25-30 gnocchi.
Why the Recipe Works
Russet potatoes are the best potatoes for making gnocchi due to their high starch content and low moisture content. This combination allows for the gnocchi formed to be light and fluffy vs. dense and chewy. High starch content reduces the need for excess flour, which can cause the gnocchi dough to get very gummy. Low moisture content also reduces the need for a lot of additional flour to create a dough with the correct consistency. Wet dough requires additional flour, which in turn can cause the gnocchi to feel heavy.
To read more about potato choice for gnocchi read more here: What Kind of Potatoes are the Best for Making Gnocchi