Potato Gnocchi

Gnocchi in Italian means Dumplings. It usually falls under the pasta dishes. I love to watch the cooking show in PBS every saturday. One of the episode in Lidias Bastianich's show was Potato gnocchi. I wanted to try out but never got a chance to make it from scratch. So last weekend I included gnocchis in my list when I went shopping. I bought the Gnocchis sold in vaccum sealed packets(Colovita brand). You also get the dried ones. The tomato sauce ,I usually make and keep them so that when ever I want to make pasta I can use them. I have followed mostly Lidia's recipe for the sauce with little changes.



Potato Gnocchi – 1 cup
Tomato sauce – 1 cup
Parmesan Cheese – 1 cup(grated)
Bread crumbs – 2 tbsp
Italian herbs – 1 tsp

Tomato sauce
tomatos - 8 plum tomatoes
onions - 1
carrots - 1/2 cup(diced)
celery - 1/2 cup(chopped)
extra virgin olive oil - 2 tbsp
pepper pdr - 1 tsp
bay leaf - 2-3nos
paprika to your taste of heat
salt to taste

Cut the tomatoes and pulse it in the mixie till it is coarsely ground.

In a deep pan add olive oil. Add the cut onions , carrots and celery. Fry it lightly. Add the ground tomato sauce, paprika,salt and pepper pdr. Add 2 cups water and bring it to a boil. Add the bay leaf , cover it and then let it simmer for 45mnts. Stir in between.
Open it and let it cook for anothe 15-20 mnts. The sauce will thicken. Use necessarry sauce for the gnocchi and store the rest in air tight container in the fridge for 8-10 days.

To complete the Gnocchi

Boil water in a pasta pot. Add the potato gnocchi when the water boils. Let it cook for 8-10 mnts till it is soft. Drain it. Keep some of the cooked water for later use.

Prepare the tomato sauce ahead. If it is thick add some cooked water to the sauce and heat it. Stir in ½ tsp Italian herbs to it.

Platter the gnocchi. Pour the tomato sauce on top. Sprinkle cheese,bread crumbs and Italian herbs.

You can eat this with italian bread or even just as it is.