Cooking with Tracy is one of our new UnTours virtual experiences! These cooking lessons are done live from Tuscany over Zoom. Our Tuscany Untour host Tracy has invited us into her kitchen to learn some of the classics.
She has lessons coming up for Tiramisu and Eggplant Parmigiana. You can sign up here.
Here is her recipe for Gnocchi, part of her first cooking class.
Gnocchi ingredients:
2lbs Russet potatoes, roughly all same size
About 10 oz Unbleached all-purpose flour
1 egg
Salt to taste
Durum wheat semolina for dusting (or fine polenta or corn flour)
To prepare:
Wash the potatoes and add them to a pan of cold salted water.
Don’t peel them and cook them in their skins (About 30-40 minutes.)
When the potatoes are soft when you insert a knife, remove them from the pan with a slotted spoon and put them on a large cutting board or work surface. Leave them to cool for a few minutes.
While they are cooling put another large pan with salted water on to heat. This is to cook the finished gnocchi.
Peel the potatoes, being careful because they are hot. Remove any dark spots.
Mash the potatoes with a fork or potato masher.
Dust some of the flour onto a spot in the center of your pile of mashed potatoes. Then crack the egg onto the flour. (The flour will insulate the egg from the heat of the potatoes and keep it from cooking.)
Add some flour gradually, mixing the ingredients intos a dough with your hands. The idea is to mix a dough with as little flour as possible, so go by feel. You may not use all of your flour.
Cut the dough into 4 parts and roll each part into a sausage about the thickness of your thumb. Then cut off half inch slices and place them on a cutting board that has been sprinkled with semolina/polenta flour. Dust the gnocchi with a little additional semolina/polenta.
To cook, drop the gnocchi into the boiling water and stir gently. They will sink but should surface in about 3 minutes, when they are done. Scoop them out with the slotted spoon.
Ideally you will add them directly to a pan of warm sauce (tomato or other sauce) and give them a turn in the pan with a wooden spoon so that they are coated in the sauce. Place on a serving dish and serve with freshly grated parmesan cheese.
Buon appetito, and be sure to sign up for one of her upcoming classes on Zoom!