homemade gnocchi with cherry tomato vodka sauce
here’s how to make homemade gnocchi without any fancy equipment. 🥔
i don’t usually do this, but when you realise how easy it actually is to make potato gnocchi, you probably will save that gnocchi for a loved one, a special occasion, or to impress a date. it’s yours. take it, make it, love it.
SERVES 2 PEOPLE
25 min prep + 25 min cooking = 50 minutes + a bit of chilling time
INGREDIENTS:
gnocchi:
500g potatoes (baking potatoes)
60g ‘00’ flour (plus some for dusting)
1 and a half tbsp extra virgin olive oil
pinch of sea salt
a thank you to @isaaccarew for the gnocchi tips
sauce:
300g cherry tomatoes
2 tbsp tomato paste
3 garlic cloves
25ml vodka (optional)
50ml pasta water
5 basil leaves
pinch of chilli flakes
salt and pepper to taste
finishers:
soft cheese (I use a vegan from @juliennebruno)
more basil leaves
black pepper
METHOD:
So although there’s no potato ricer, you will need a sieve, a potato peeler, a large saucepan and a food processor (for the sauce). So get those ready.
Potatoes. Wash them and chop them in half with the skin on, before boiling them in salted water for 15 minutes or until soft in the middle and falling off the fork. Once cooked, drain them and let them cool for a few minutes.
Now at this point, you could peel the potatoes with a peeler, up to you. However, I would then squeeze the middles out into a sieve and pop the sieve over a large bowl. With a fork, mash the potatoes through the sieve until they start passing through. Use a silicone spatula to push the final bits through and scrape the potato off the bottom of the sieve. Leave that in the bowl, then add the flour, olive oil and salt. Use your hands to combine that all together until it forms a dough.
Add a few pinches of flour to your kitchen worktop, then roll and combine into a ball. Don’t overwork this by the way, a minute of rolling will be fine. Now take that ball, and roll it into a large log that’s about 4cm in width. With a knife, chop every 3cm down until you have loads of little gnocchi. Pop them on a floured baking tray and leave them in the fridge whilst you make a sauce.
Okay hello, we’re getting saucy. In a large frying pan, add some oil and the tomatoes. Fry until the tomatoes blister and soften, before adding in the garlic, basil, vodka, and chilli flakes. Whack down the heat, and either blitz that mix with a hand blender, or pour it into a food processor, blitz till smooth, and pop it back into the pan.
The final stretch now!! GNOCH GNOCH, it’s time. Right, get some salted water boiling and add the gnocchi into the saucepan gently. This should take 2 minutes to cook, and you’ll know when it’s done when the gnocchi bops up to the top like Sharpay Evans. Keep some pasta water and throw that in the sauce pan.
Make sure you’ve got a smooth tomatoey sauce that’s seasoned to your taste. Gently add the gnocchi into the sauce, stir, and serve with some soft cheese (vegan pls if you can) and some more basil, as well as a crack of pepper. That’s a long old recipe innit? Well, go inhale that gnocchi down then. You deserve it.
TIP: instead of boiling the gnocchi at step 6, you can pan fry it in oil on medium heat until golden brown each side in a separate frying pan.