When my friends, living in Roma, announced their visit to san Francisco my mouth was already celebrating!

It’s not an excuse for me to make Italian food but it’s always much more fun to cook all together.

Saturday night after a long debate between Spaghetti alla carbonara and Gnocchi, and after begging Gianluca for making gnocchi with me, we occupied the kitchen.

Gialuca had made a Ragú in the morning, very simple.

Ragú or Bolognese:

1 onion

2 small carrots

2 stalk of celery

1 1/2 ground beef

1 cup of red wine

1 minced clove of garlic

3 big cans of peeled tomatoes (blended, to make a sauce)

Cook your mirepoix in a bit of olive oil on a medium eat, you want the vegetables to soften but not color. After about 5 minutes add your wine, then the meat and let cook for a 5 more minutes. Then add the garlic and tomato sauce.

Let simmer as long as you can. Gianluca used white wine instead of red. I usually use a bit of herbs like 1 bay leaf, oregano, basil if I have fresh basil. 3-4 hours cooking it time is my minimum.

Gnocchi:

5 potatoes

more or less 3 cup of flour

1 egg

salt

Every region of Italy has it’s own way of making the gnocchi, the result is always the same, everyone has a big smile at the table!

We had 11 person at our table and Gianluca is used to cook for an Army, he did use 17 potatoes. Trust me you will never use that much unless you are feeding your whole neighborhood!!

Pre-cook the potatoes like for making a mash, whatever technic you prefer is good: steamed, boiled. pressure cooked. I would not recommend to bake them because it would removed too much moister out of the potato.

Once your potatoes are fork tender then pass them through a food-mill or ricer. You do not want any chuck left behind.

I usually salt my potatoes at this stage. Some people don’t and you don’t have to.

To make gnocchi you need to make a dough out this potato mash, so you need to find a big plane surface where you can work and roll the dough. Put your mash potatoes directly on the surface and start adding the flour 1/2 cup at a time. after 3 or 4 times, create a little crater in the middle of your dough with your hands and break the egg inside.

Work the dough by folding it onto itself over and over again, if it gets too sticky just add more flour. At one point you will feel the doug really homogenized, it will look almost like bread dough. Pinch the dough between your index and finger and it should feel like a very soft bread dough, you will not have elasticity.

At this point it’s time to roll and cut your gnocchi. If it’s your first time making gnocchi, I would recommend to boil  3 cups of water in a small sauce pan and take a small nugget out of the dough and boil it. If the dough separate in the contact with hot water then you need to put more flour, If the gnocchi drop to the bottom and then float back to the surface, pull it out it’s cooked and taste.

Some people like a softer consistency, Gianluca and I were used to a more firm gnocchi. Add more flour to your taste.

Once you have a big loaf of dough in front of you cut a piece and using both hands roll the dough in a long sausage like, 1/2 inch in diameter. Take a knife and cut to the bias every 1/2 inch. Make sure you always have your surface sprinkled with flour. In a cookie sheet, put a kitchen towel on the bottom sprinkle it with flour and display your gnocchi on it until ready to cook. Make sure none of them touch, especially if you are preparing them in advance because they will stick to each other and you will end up with a big sheet of goo.

In my family we take the time to take each gnocchi and roll them delicately on the tip of a fork with a thumb, it creates ridges on the gnocchi, it said to be better to grab the sauce.  In Gianluca’s family, it was never done and to tell you the truth we made so many gnocchi that it would have taken us hours to put each one of them thru the fork trick!

To cook your gnocchi you need a big pot of salted boiling water and drop the gnocchi in there. With a spoon stir once. The gnocchi will float to the surface and you’ll know they are cooked. pull them out of the water or if you have a big quantity strain them and add the Ragú sauce and parmegiano to finish.

This is fun and a recipe you can do with children. I start making my first gnocchi when I was 5 with my grandma!

This could be a good base for a lot of yummy recipe: try the butternut squash gnocchi with brown butter and sage sauce, purple potato gnocchi with a cream sauce, spinach gnocchi with goat cheese sauce.... I’ll let you have fun! the only trick is the consistency of the gnocchi, and you need to make it at least once to get it right, so get going!!!

On the second to last picture, you can see what a table look like when 11 friends get together for gnocchi con ragú.

Rico had made a wonderful Caesar salad to finish our meal.

Bon Appétit!