While flipping through an old Martha Stewart magazine I came across a recipe for Baked Gnocchi with Cheese. It sounded so yummy and I had been talking about making it for a couple weeks. For anyone that does not know, a Gnocchi is a small dumpling type noodle (like pictured to the right) with a base of potato or ricotta cheese. My Mimi (grandma) made the 'mistake' of making gnocchis one year - she served it with sauce and italian sausage. It was so good!! And every time we visited her we would ask her to make gnocchis ... she said they took
a long time to make and instead would make her yummy lasagna for us. Ha! Us girls have made gnocchi's a few times since, the last time being October of 2007 -> there we are rolling out each individual dumpling. So when I saw this yummy version of it I knew it had to be tried. I recruited my sister on her day off work {yesterday} to come over and help make lots of gnochhi - that way there would be plenty for my family and Tony's parents. We like to share. :) Everything was going smoothly and we were making pretty good timing. We peeled, boiled, and mashed 5 lbs of potatoes and added to that six eggs, six cups of flour, and six tablespoons of salt. We started mixing it all together by hand to be sure everything was well incorporated. Then I tasted the dough. I tasted it again. I told Brittany to taste the dough and asked if she thought it tasted salty. Her face said it all. I reread the recipe and realized that I was only supposed to add about
8 teaspoons of salt - not 6 Tablespoons. GASP! First we tried adding a little more flour. That didn't work. Maybe adding a little milk. But we didn't want to mess up the dough. We called mom to tell her of our mishap and ask for any ideas. She laughed (in a nice way of course). The dough was very very salty. And we figured that the only way to fix it is to double the recipe again and add
no more salt. So as soon as my sweet husband got off work I sent him on a mission to buy us another 5 lbs of potatoes. He got home. We peeled. We boiled. We prayed! We added the flour and eggs. No
more salt. We mixed. mixed. mixed. And mixed some more. It was a massive pile of dough! The pictures do not do justice. I think enough to feed our neighborhood - hence the title of this post. We hesitantly tasted the dough again. {insert big sigh of relief!} It was no longer salty. Praise the Lord! Brittany sliced and shaped the gnocchi's while I boiled them and prepared the mozzerella cheese sauce. We took turns straining them out of the water as they rose to the top. Mom joined us a little while later to help finish and clean the counter. We made a fairly large mess. I think I swept the floor at least five times during the process. And washed my large pot four times. But after 10 lbs of potatoes, a dozen eggs, 16 cups of flour, 6 tablespoons of salt and some yummy cheese sauce we ended up reaching our goal - baked gnocchi with cheese. Which admist all the cooking we did not get a picture of the final product. Oh well. It was good. Very good actually. We didn't use nearly half the dough. So I have divided the rest up into four ziploc bags and they have made themselves at home in our freezer. The next time we have a craving for gnocchi's at least it won't take no where near as long. :)
Recipe for Basic Potato Gnocchi
Baked Gnocchi with Cheese
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While flipping through an old Martha Stewart magazine I came across a recipe for Baked Gnocchi with Cheese. It sounded so yummy and I had been talking about making it for a couple weeks. For anyone that does not know, a Gnocchi is a small dumpling type noodle (like pictured to the right) with a base of potato or ricotta cheese. My Mimi (grandma) made the 'mistake' of making gnocchis one year - she served it with sauce and italian sausage. It was so good!! And every time we visited her we would ask her to make gnocchis ... she said they took 
a long time to make and instead would make her yummy lasagna for us. Ha! Us girls have made gnocchi's a few times since, the last time being October of 2007 -> there we are rolling out each individual dumpling. So when I saw this yummy version of it I knew it had to be tried. I recruited my sister on her day off work {yesterday} to come over and help make lots of gnochhi - that way there would be plenty for my family and Tony's parents. We like to share. :) Everything was going smoothly and we were making pretty good timing. We peeled, boiled, and mashed 5 lbs of potatoes and added to that six eggs, six cups of flour, and six tablespoons of salt. We started mixing it all together by hand to be sure everything was well incorporated. Then I tasted the dough. I tasted it again. I told Brittany to taste the dough and asked if she thought it tasted salty. Her face said it all. I reread the recipe and realized that I was only supposed to add about 
8 teaspoons of salt - not 6 Tablespoons. GASP! First we tried adding a little more flour. That didn't work. Maybe adding a little milk. But we didn't want to mess up the dough. We called mom to tell her of our mishap and ask for any ideas. She laughed (in a nice way of course). The dough was very very salty. And we figured that the only way to fix it is to double the recipe again and add no more salt. So as soon as my sweet husband got off work I sent him on a mission to buy us another 5 lbs of potatoes. He got home. We peeled. We boiled. We prayed! We added the flour and eggs. No 
more salt. We mixed. mixed. mixed. And mixed some more. It was a massive pile of dough! The pictures do not do justice. I think enough to feed our neighborhood - hence the title of this post. We hesitantly tasted the dough again. {insert big sigh of relief!} It was no longer salty. Praise the Lord! Brittany sliced and shaped the gnocchi's while I boiled them and prepared the mozzerella cheese sauce. We took turns straining them out of the water as they rose to the top. Mom joined us a little while later to help finish and clean the counter. We made a fairly large mess. I think I swept the floor at least five times during the process. And washed my large pot four times. But after 10 lbs of potatoes, a dozen eggs, 16 cups of flour, 6 tablespoons of salt and some yummy cheese sauce we ended up reaching our goal - baked gnocchi with cheese. Which admist all the cooking we did not get a picture of the final product. Oh well. It was good. Very good actually. We didn't use nearly half the dough. So I have divided the rest up into four ziploc bags and they have made themselves at home in our freezer. The next time we have a craving for gnocchi's at least it won't take no where near as long. :)
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