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THIS RECIPE IS easily (and better-suited to be) made sans-Passover modification. Like most other gnocchi, it's better the day-after when the flavor of the tomato sauce has had a chance to soak in. That's also when I had planned to take a picture of the result. Unfortunately, forks flew too fast to be stopped.
This simple recipe calls for very little other than prep time:
2 large baking potatoes (about 12 oz. each)
1 egg, lightly beaten
1 cup flour (Passover substitute: matzoh meal)
1 tsp salt
1 tsp pepper
If you have these, gnocchi could be yours!
Soften the potatoes (microwave or bake in skins until tender and scoop out, or peel and boil till soft), and while the potato is still warm use a fork to mash well. Stir in egg, salt, pepper, and sift flour over mixture, stirring until just blended. Scoop out a large spoonful of dough and roll into a rope. Cut at intervals, rolling each with a fork to form grooves in the dough. Set aside as you repeat the process. When finished, drop all into pot of salted, boiling water and boil until all have risen to the surface, perhaps 3 minutes. Immediately remove. For the love of Italian grandmothers everywhere, please do not overcook.
This is another excellent blank slate recipe. Try out different sauces. Try adding different flavors to the pasta--cheese, sweet potatoes, spinach. Try baking after boiling. Mess around with it. The Italian grandmothers ask only that you do not overcook--you're aiming for a soft, doughy, rich, filling pasta, which is why it's sometimes best to just cover with tomato sauce, chill, and wait for tomorrow.
NOTE: my grandfather, actually, has an interesting technique for shaping the pasta, which my mother (who originally passed along this recipe) promises to explain in detail at some point. As the story goes, years ago, he would shape the gnocchi with two hands as fast as his mother could cut them. Naturally, this needs to be attempted.
I TOLD YOU: a whole week of Passover recipes!
Tonight, after a day of feasting on leftovers, the evening was capped with potato latkes, a.k.a. potato pancakes. I'm not exactly sure there's much nutritional redemtion in potato pancakes (as you'll notice from the ingredient list), but I'll be damned if they're not some of the most delicious foods ever invented. And you get to eat them with both sour cream and applesauce which are not two things the Israelites were likely to have had while fleeing Egypt, but are delicious nonetheless.
Please locate the following:
4 or 5 medium-sized potatoes
1 large onion
2 or 3 eggs
2 tbsp flour
salt + pepper
garlic powder
3/4 cup olive oil
Peel and grate the potatoes. Squeeze water out of grated potatoes. Peel and grate onion into potatoes. Add flour, salt, pepper, garlic powder (or season to your taste), and mix in the eggs. Heat oil over medium heat. Drop pancake-sized spoonfulls of batter into oil, fry to golden brown. Remove, blot out excess oil, and serve with sour cream and applesauce.
A few notes: first, the trick is to not end up with too much egg in the batter. You can use two potatoes and one small onion and one egg to make fewer latkes, and you can double and triple the recipe to make as many as you like, but always add eggs guessing on the less-is-safer priciple. You can always add one more if the potato isn't sticking together enough.
Secondly, the step where you squeeze out the potatoes is as annoyingly gross as it sounds, it does leave your hands covered in potato bits, but unless you want your latkes to end up runny and a pain in the ass to cook, you'll do this. Trust me, it's worth it.
It's also worth mentioning that potato pancakes are twice as delicious the next day, even cold, sort of like tortilla espanola is twice as good the next day, cold, and especially when you're hung over, so feel free to make a bunch of them.
NOTE: I have since been informed that flour is not allowed during Passover, even if it's not being used to leaven anything. So, substitue matzoh meal or potato starch instead. Fantastic, it's only day one, and I'm already breaking rules...
