Homemade Gnocchi From Scratch | My Food Memoirs (2024)

FAQs

Why did my homemade gnocchi fall apart? ›

My Gnocchi Are Falling Apart When I Cook Them

This means there isn't enough flour and your dough is too wet.

Your gnocchi may be mushy because of any or all of the following reasons: boiled the potatoes instead of baked them. used waxy new potatoes with too much moisture in them. not used eggs to help texture.

Adding too much flour all at once

It is very easy to add too much flour to gnocchi dough, which can make these dumplings glutinous, gummy, and sticky. If you dump all of the flour into your gnocchi dough at once, you won't have the same texture as a gnocchi that has just enough flour to bring it together.

Some gnocchi recipes recommend floury potatoes instead, such as Idaho potatoes or Russet potatoes, but I don't always agree. They're too mealy. Tipo 00 Flour is a soft, fine milled flour from Italy. It's a must-have for light and tender gnocchi and homemade pasta.

Egg yolk added to your gnocchi dough helps improve texture, and keep it together while cooking. Gnocchi is traditionally made with eggs in Veneto and no eggs in Piedmont, the two Northern Italian regions famous for gnocchi. We vote for egg yolks at the rate of 1 per (500g) 1 lb of uncooked potatoes used.

Indeed, resting your cut-and-shaped gnocchi prior to cooking helps individual gnocchi pieces keep their shape. If you add them to a pot of boiling water too soon, you risk the starch falling apart. All that effort to make homemade gnocchi could go, quite literally, down the drain.

Flour: This will 'make or break' your gnocchi. Too much and the gnocchi will be chewy with a rubbery consistency. Too little and the gnocchi will not come together and will fall apart when boiled. So start with 3/4 of the recommended flour and once it's all mixed in, slowly incorporate more (bit by bit).

Let the gnocchi air dry for 30 minutes on a rimmed baking sheet lined with a clean kitchen towel dusted with semolina or all-purpose flour. Make sure the pieces aren't touching. Transfer the baking sheet to the freezer. Freeze the gnocchi, uncovered, for 1 to 2 hours, until completely firm.

When cool enough to handle, scrape off the skins and push the potato through a ricer or food mill, then, while still warm, start working your dough on a floured work surface. (Here, Davies offers up another tip to fight the mush: “Spread out the mash to cool; the escaping steam will further take away any moisture.”)

For soft and fluffy gnocchi, we suggest you cook them immediately right after making the dough. Otherwise, freeze them and wait a few hours for them to harden. Then portion them into plastic bags to be thawed just before tossing them into boiling water for your next gnocchi dinner!

How to know when gnocchi is done? ›

How to prepare gnocchi. Poach gnocchi in batches in a pan of lightly salted water for 2-4 minutes. Cooked gnocchi will float to the top. Strain and serve immediately with a good pasta sauce.

The secret to the lightest, most tender potato gnocchi is to bake the potatoes instead of boiling them. A baked potato is dryer than one that has been boiled, which means you avoid having to add more flour to the dough to account for excess moisture, a practice that leads to over-kneaded, tough gnocchi.

Nutritional Value

Believe it or not, regular pasta is actually more carb-heavy than gnocchi, coming in at around 2 times the amount of carbs per serving. Gnocchi is also notorious for having a lot more sodium, with over 200 grams of it per serving. Regular pasta doesn't have nearly as high of a sodium content.

Gnocchi alla zucca: Pumpkin gnocchi served with butter and cheese. Ndunderi: The Amalfi Coast specialty originally made with farro and curdled milk. Gnocchi alla Romana: Made with semolina and milk, this variety is shaped into squares and baked rather than boiled.

I've tried different types of potatoes while testing this recipe over the years. I recommend using a baking-type potato variety such as Russet or Idaho to make gnocchi dough, because they are drier and have more starch than waxy and/or yellow potatoes.

Mix to form a firm, slightly sticky dough. If it's too sticky, add a little more flour, but only a tablespoon at a time.

Due to the smaller and denser nature of gnocchi, it is more likely that you will end up eating bigger portions than if you chose regular pasta. Although all foods can be part of a healthy diet in moderation, if you are trying to lose weight opt for other options than gnocchi or pasta.

The first thing you need to know when buying gnocchi is what they are made with. If the label says 'potato gnocchi', it means that potatoes are the main ingredient; if, on the other hand, it says 'gnocchi with potatoes', then flour is the main ingredient. So checking all the ingredients of the dough is important.

You want to use just enough flour so the dough isn't sticky. If you add too much flour then the gnocchi can be gluey, but too little and the gnocchi will fall apart when cooking. You may need to adjust this slightly depending on how moist your mashed potatoes are.

Other Ways To Salvage Undercooked Pasta

For pasta that is yet to be swirled into sauce, you can simply heat it up on the stove again. Add it to boiling water and let it simmer for a few more minutes. The desired texture for pasta is al dente, so it's easy to make the mistake of thinking that your pasta is fully cooked.

How do you fix mushy gnocchi? ›

When cool enough to handle, scrape off the skins and push the potato through a ricer or food mill, then, while still warm, start working your dough on a floured work surface. (Here, Davies offers up another tip to fight the mush: “Spread out the mash to cool; the escaping steam will further take away any moisture.”)

So, according to the food experts over at Mashed, all you need to do to get your pasta back to a decent texture is a little bit of olive oil. They recommend heating olive oil in a skillet, adding the overcooked pasta and gently sautéing over a medium heat until the pasta is a little firmer or to your preferred texture.