Homemade Gnocchi with Tomato Sauce

by: Ms. Bardin (fourth grade teacher)

This is a recipe I learned when I traveled to Italy last summer. It was so interesting to learn homemade techniques for dishes I had only seen in restaurants. This year I cooked this dish for my mom for Mother’s Day and it was delicious!  

Source: Cooking class in Sorrento, Italy

Ingredients

2 lbs of red potatoes
1 lb flour
2 eggs
2 28oz cans of peeled tomatoes
2 cloves of garlic
10 leaves of basil
2 tbsp olive oil
salt
fresh mozzarella (if desired)

Recipe Steps

Potatoes

  1. Boil unsalted water to cook the potatoes without peeling for 30 minutes. When the potatoes are soft (poke with fork) they are ready.
  2. Wait 5-10 minutes for the potatoes to cool
  3. In a separate bowl, whisk the two eggs
  4. Peel the potatoes and crush them (using a potato masher or ricer is best) and then mix the eggs into the potatoes
  5. Using your counter surface mix in half of the flour (8oz) until the dough becomes soft
  6. Roll portions of the dough into 1 in thick “snakes”. Coat your hands and dough with the remaining flour as you work so that it does not stick to your surface.
  7. Cut the dough into 1/2 in to 1 in size pieces using the side of a spatula
  8. The gnocchi you do not want to cook can be frozen for a month.
  9. Boil salted water to cook the gnocchi. The gnocchi are ready when they float on the water.
  10. Add to a bowl with your sauce and some chunks of mozzarella and enjoy!

Tomato Sauce

  1. In a separate pot, add the olive oil, chopped garlic, and chopped basil and cook for 1 minute on medium heat.
  2. Add the tomatoes, crushing them with a spoon or potato masher in the pot.
  3. Cover and let cook for 25-30 minutes on low/medium heat
  4. Add 3-4 pinches of salt and the sauce is ready to serve!