polenta and potato gnocchi

Oven-roast 3 large baking potatoes, skin on. Puncture skin with sharp knife, to let the steam out when baking. When done, let cool slightly, then use a spoon to scoop out all the potato. Discard all the skin. Any skin left on will ruin the entire recipe.

Do not use a ricer! (I know other recipes call for a ricer, but this is my recipe). Use a fork to mash the potato. Now, eye how much potato you have, then add about half as much course ground polenta meal (uncooked). So, for example if you have 2 cups potato, add about 1 cup polenta meal.

On the counter, make the mashed potato/polenta into a "volcano" (push  into a tiny heap all together, then use your fingers to make a hallowed out middle, where the other ingredients will go.

Crack 2 whole eggs into this. Add a dash of salt. Mix all this together just enough til a dough forms. Cut into 4 pieces. Roll each piece by hand into "fat snakes". Take a fork and gently mark along the entire end of one side of each snake--this is to make a texture for the gnocchi to hold a sauce. Cut each snake into smaller bite sized pieces. Sprinkle lightly with flour/polenta so they don´t stick, and so this flour/polenta helps thicken the sauce.

You could boil this gnocchi in boiling water or stock, til they float to the top, then take out gnocchi with slatted spoon scoop. Add gnocchi to whatever sauce you like.

Or,

I boil the gnocchi in a cauliflower soup or other thin soup, til done and serve it all together. The lightly floured gnocchi thicken the soup down to a sauce.

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Variation: add steamed chopped fresh spinach leaves to the gnocchi before making into a dough. Just add a bit more potato and/or polenta til the correct consistency for a gnocchi dough. Continue recipe.



Minestrone variation:

Make your favourite minestrone soup, adding a few cups or so more broth or stock. Cook and serve the gnocchi in the minestrone.