Homemade gnocchi takes a long time to prepare, but just a little bit can feed anybody very hungry. We were four people at David's place for dinner last night, and it's amazing at how full we felt after a few spoonfuls of gnocchi with this delicious sauce.
Ingredients:
~4 well-boiled potatoes
1/2 kg of wheat flour (but try to have more around, just in case)
Salt
1 egg (optional)
1. Peel potatoes with your fingers (it'll be easy if they're well cooked and cooled under running water).
2. Cut them in thick slices, and then mash well with a fork. Lay the mash on a bowl with some flour.
3. Add more flour on top, and then mix with hands until homogenic. Cover your hands on flour, so that the mix doesn't stick to your fingers so much.
4. If you wish, you may add a stirred egg. David says it makes the gnocchi taste better, but it also makes it more difficult to make homogenic and to succeed on the boiling part.
If you add the egg, mix again (always with hands), until homogenic.
5. Spread flour over a clean table, cover your hands in flour again, and roll the potato dough into "fingers".
6. With a fork, chop the fingers in pieces of more of less 1,5cm.
7. we've reached the artistic part.: to give the shape of a real gnocco, press each piece with the back of a fork...
8. ... and roll it up with your thumb to separate from fork, making a cilinder-like figure.
9. Boil the gnocchi on some water with oil.
10. When a gnocco floats up, remove it from boiling water and let it sit on a dish. Continue, one by one.
11. Serve warm with sauce, spices, freshly-grated Parmiggiano cheese and candlelight. ;)
Salsa Alla Norma: Traditional Sicilian vegan sauce. David explained to me the two meanings of the sauce's name. First, normal Sicilian food is comprised mostly of cultivated vegetables and fish; second, it's "to the norm" because when you prepare this sauce, you can never fail.
Ingredients:
1 eggplant, chopped
1 zucchini, chopped
1 onion, chopped
1 clove of garlic (but I'd have added two, myself), chopped
4 carrots
1 small can of peas
0,5 kg of thick tomato juice
Olive Oil
Salt, black pepper, assorted spices to taste.
Stir-fry vegetables (except for the peas, which came already cooked in the can) on olive oil, until all is tender. If you want a strong onion flavour, you can let the onion turn golden-brown, if not, stir-fry it only until tender and translucid. Add spices and tomato juice when veggies are soft and well-cooked. Cover, and let cook on low fire for some twenty or thirty minutes.
Side dish: Bruschette
Ingredients:
1 chopped tomato
Chopped Mozzarella
Oregano
Basil
Flavoured toasts (we had garlic with parsley flavour)
Olive Oil
Mix tomato, mozzarella and the spices. Spread the mix over the toasts, then pour some olive oil just before serving. You may add salt, too (to taste).
