Tasty Tuesday~7/24

Growing up in an Italian family was amazing.  Every woman in our family was a fantastic cook!  My great grandma and grandma however, guarded their recipes like they were gold.  And in our family, they really were.  They were known for giving you a recipe with an ingredient missing or unknown measurements.  You you try to duplicate their great dish and it would turn out good, but not as good as theirs.  As my grandma was laying in the hospital bed, she leaned over and whispered the secret to her antipasto dressing.  Now if I could only get my mother to tell me..... Anyway, one of my favorite memories is of helping my great grandma, Grandma U, make gnocchis.  Now that I am a wife and mama, I wanted to try to make them myself.  I found this Mario Batali recipe that is the closest I have ever tasted my Grandma U's.


Ingredients
3 pounds russet potatoes
2 cups all-purpose flour
1 egg, extra large
1 pinch salt
1/2 cup canola oil


Directions

1. Boil the whole potatoes until they are soft (about 45 minutes). While still warm, peel and pass through vegetable mill onto clean pasta board.Set 6 quarts of water to boil in a large spaghetti pot. 
2. Set up ice bath with 6 cups ice and 6 cups water near boiling water.
3. Make well in center of potatoes and sprinkle all over with flour, using all the flour. Place egg and salt in center of well and using a fork, stir into flour and potatoes, just like making normal pasta. Once egg is mixed in, bring dough together, kneading gently until a ball is formed. Knead gently another 4 minutes until ball is dry to touch.
4. Roll baseball-sized ball of dough into 3/4-inch diameter dowels and cut dowels into 1-inch long pieces. Flick pieces off of fork or concave side of cheese grater until dowel is finished. Drop these pieces into boiling water and cook until they float (about 1 minute). Meanwhile, continue with remaining dough, forming dowels, cutting into 1-inch pieces and flicking off of fork. As gnocchi float to top of boiling water, remove them to ice bath. Continue until all have been cooled off. Let sit several minutes in bath and drain from ice and water. Toss with 1/2 cup canola oil and store covered in refrigerator up to 48 hours until ready to serve.

Bon Appetit!