May 29, 2008 Food & Drink » Food & Drink Feature

Potato Gnocchi 

Chef Dennis Johnson's recipe from Fid's Monday Night Supper Club

by Dennis Johnson

Serves 6 as a main course. Boiled gnocchi can be chilled for 3-4 days before serving with sauce of your choice.

Ingredients

1 kg peeled, baked potato

3 egg yolks

300g all purpose flour

salt to taste

olive oil for drizzling

Fid chef/proprietor Dennis Johnson starts with high starch potatoes like Netted gems or russets and pokes holes in just the top of the potatoes to create a current of steam flowing from the bottom and out through the top. He places them on pans stacked on top of each other, and roasts them for about 45 minutes. All of this makes for makes for even, dry baking.

Once cooked, the potatoes are peeled and pushed through a tamis. (A tamis—or tammy in Nova Scotian—is a cylindrical strainer shaped like a snare drum. Food is placed on the fine mesh then scraped through to a bowl below. A fine sieve, a ricer or a thorough mashing will also do).

Dennis combines the "dry, smooth potato" with egg yolks, flour and salt in a mixer and lets it go until everything is smooth. He places a Sharpie (for size reference) on a floured counter, breaks off pieces of dough and rolls them into Sharpie-width ropes. With swift, warrior-like motions, he cuts the ropes with a floured palette knife into small squares, or Barbie pillows as one Supper Club student calls them.

With gnocchi paddle in left hand, pillows are placed, one by one, onto the ridged surface and rolled off the paddle, guided by the right thumb. The corrugated curls land on the flour-dusted counter top. Boil the curls in salty water until they float to the surface, scoop them out with a ladle, then spread them across a baking tray with a drizzle of olive oil.

When sauce is ready, plunge the gnocchi in and stir to coat. Serve on white plates and topped with lots of airy parmesan cheese.

Don't ask Dennis for a paddle. He only has one left. Use a fork.

—Lindsay Cameron Wilson

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