More Potato Pillows

Remember that time I took a gnocchi class? Well, I decided it was time to tackle making this dish at home. Lana and I hadn't seen each other for about a week so I broke my 'no making plans on Mondays' rule and we made plans to make some pumpkin gnocchi.

If you want to do this at home the only special equipment you'll definitely need is a potato ricer. I also like the gnocchi board for creating grooves but some people swear by using a fork. I end up just making really ugly sort of squished gnocchi with a fork so if you can figure it out you're a better gnocchi maker than I am. (By the way, the reason there are grooves in pasta and gnocchi is so that they are better at holding sauces. The type of pasta used in a dish correlates to the sauce or dressing used. Just in case you weren't in the know.) I also like using a spider to get the gnocchi out of the water but apparently I am the only one on the planet who calls it this because no one knows what I'm talking about when I mention it. Not even the lady who works at Sur La Table.

We used this recipe except actually not really. Neither of us had any all spice and there was none at the store I went to and I didn't really want to use it anyways. So we decided to go a more savory route. I know when people make pumpkin ravioli there are usually cookie crumbs in it which sweetens it but I always find it far too saccharine for my tastes and I didn't want our gnocchi to be that way. So rather than the suggested spices, and with some help from The Flavor Bible, we decided to use just a dash of cinnamon, some garlic salt, and rosemary. We also put in salt and pepper of course.


Lana volunteered to do this part because she's "good at touching hot things." When I took the gnocchi class we used ricers that were a bit more traditional like this one. That kind is incredibly difficult to use though. I won't claim to understand the physics of it but something about it makes it a pain. I think because the kind I have has holes on all sides it's a bit easier to use.


I started mixing the rest of our ingredients.


I have this spice mill thing that I bought once because I wanted to make fortune cookies but couldn't find ground star anise so I decided I'd just buy it whole and grind it myself. I didn't actually end up making the fortune cookies so this thing has pretty much just sat in my cupboard unused. It did end up working perfectly for grinding dried rosemary. Probably because that's the whole point of the spice mill.


I am newly in love with this brand of spices. Mostly because the packaging is adorable and I am easily marketed to.


This was our dough. Don't worry, we got all that flour mixed in.


Lana was pretty enthused by this whole gnocchi paddle thing so I let her take over that while I started cooking our little potato pillows.


Two of the biggest mistakes people make when making gnocchi are using boiling water and thinking they are done when they float to the top. You should use very hot water that is sort of just about to boil but isn't quite yet. Also after the gnocchi float to the top wait a couple more minutes before taking them out. When cooking the gnocchi one of the most important things is the ones going in the pot at the same time are the same size. Otherwise you end up with some gummy, some right, and some hard. Put in batches of around 15 pieces and use the spider to take them out when done.

Then you can put them on a tray and let them firm up a touch and enjoy. We used browned butter and some amazing parmesan on ours. Followed by ice cream. And I'm going to brag a bit here because gnocchi is notoriously difficult to get right and ours was awesome.

Potato Pillows

So, last month I took a cooking class and I forgot to take photos or make a big deal out of it but it was awesome. It was a fish cooking class and we made Crispy Skin Salmon with Shiitake-Cream Sauce, Sesame Crusted Tuna Steaks with Ginger-Soy Sauce, Classic Fish and Chips, Grilled Fish Tacos, and Pan Fried Sole with Lemon-Butter Sauce.

I've looked for awhile for a cooking class I wanted to take. And by awhile I mean like, years. Obviously this wasn't super intense looking but still. The thing about finding a good cooking class is they're all led different ways. I wanted something hands on, with food I could eat (no meat for me), a reasonable price, a subject I was interested in, and during a time convenient for me. I decided to go for it when I found a Saturday evening class where I would be able to actually cook everything rather than just watch, I could eat everything, and the whole thing was around $70. Plus I am awesome at making vegetarian food but I don't have a lot of knowledge about cooking fish, which I occasionally eat. And here's where we get into a tangent because I know someone is going to be curious or outraged at my eating fish.

I was raised vegetarian from birth. When I got into high school I was going out with friends more often and it was harder to always find a vegetarian option. I started eating chicken and fish for a brief time but never ate any red or dark meats or any white meat other than chicken. Later I stopped eating chicken and most fish. I now eat fish occasionally when it's of very good quality. I call myself a vegetarian because I think saying I'm a pescatarian makes me sound like an asshole.

Alright, so the fish cooking class was so awesome I decided to come home and immediately sign up for more classes. I registered for a gnocchi class and a handmade pasta class that will take place in November. This weekend I took the gnocchi class and it was super fun. We made two kinds of gnocchi, a traditional potato gnocchi and a gnocchi gnudi, which is gnocchi made from cheese. "Pillowy" is the word most often used to describe gnocchi but pillowy gnocchi is pretty rare. I've had it once and it was one of those meals I still think about and crave. I guess since making traditional gnocchi pillowy was so difficult someone decided to use ricotta to make gnocchi, which is called gnocchi gnudi. So, we made the traditional potato gnocchi, a spinach ricotta gnocchi gnudi, and three sauces. A marinara, a hazelnut gorgonzola cream sauce, and a browned butter sage sauce. My favorite was the spinach gnocchi with the marinara sauce.


These are the spinach gnocchi after they were cooked.



Potato gnocchi with the gorgonzola sauce.



Gnocchi in a pot.



Potato gnocchi prior to being cooked.



Spinach gnocchi prior to being cooked.

I actually didn't like the gorgonzola sauce at all. It had some lemon in it that was really weird with the gorgonzola. And I looooove gorgonzola. This was also sort of a difficult thing to do as a class simply because one of the things we learned was that it's really important the gnocchi all be the same size. Otherwise when cooking some will be perfect, some gummy, and some hard. In a class setting with 16 people making gnocchi it's impossible to make them uniform. The gnocchi gnudi was a lot more forgiving I think which may have been why that was my favorite. I'm excited to try the potato gnocchi at home where I have more control over how they all turn out.

This is something I learned at my last class but I've been excited about it since I heard it. It's "called" FAS. Basically it's like a little reminder of how to fix things while cooking. The F stands for fat, the A for acid, and the S for salt. If while cooking something tastes too fatty you add acid (citrus, tomatoes, etc.), if it's too acidic add salt, if it's too salty add fat (olive oil, butter, etc.). See how it goes in a circle? I seriously think this is the coolest thing ever. I also learned at the gnocchi class that when something calls for anchovy paste it's in an effort to hit a savory note. Artificially this is what they do with MSG. If you want to avoid using anchovy paste (which I actually think is fantastic) you can use miso paste.

Alright, now I'm just rambling but if you're interested in taking a cooking class I highly recommend taking one at Sur La Table.