Tips For Making Great Gnocchi

Use a scale to measure ingredients! You will have excellent consistency if you use a scale. The recipes in this post list gram measurements first, followed by volume measurements. Each person measures ingredients a little differently in a measuring cup, which can cause widely varying results. Having a simple kitchen scale that measures in grams will make all the difference.

Measure carefully, but trust your senses. There are many variables when making gnocchi: some eggs are slightly larger than others; some days you need to add more flour than usual; some stoves run hotter than others. It’s important to measure precisely, but it’s equally important to recognize when the dough is too dry or sticky. P.s this is one of the recipes that I learned from pasta guide of Nonna Box. Many recipes in this blog call for additional flour or liquid, as needed, to account for some of these variables. So pay close attention to the description of how the finished dough should look and feel and be ready to make adjustments to achieve the proper consistency.

When combining dough ingredients, Italian cooks traditionally mound the flour on a work surface and form a well in the center to hold the wet ingredients before drawing the flour into them. This method works perfectly and certainly has stood the test of time. When mixing dough myself, I put the ingredients in a bowl and use my hands or the hook attachment of a stand mixer, so this approach essentially mimics the traditional well method. I have found the results to be just as good as the traditional method.

Test your dough. When making dumplings, take one or two and put them in the simmering water. If they fall apart, add a bit more flour. You want just enough flour to prevent the dumplings from falling apart while cooking, and no more.

Ideally, dumplings are best eaten the day they are made. If you want to store them, remove excess flour and cover with an additional piece of parchment paper, cover with plastic wrap, and refrigerate. Many types of dumplings can be frozen for up to 1 month. To do so, freeze them on a parchment- lined baking sheet and, once frozen, transfer to an airtight container, such as a resealable plastic bag. When cooking frozen dumplings, always cook them directly from the freezer.

When measuring portions of most types of uncooked dumplings, we use a very specialized portioning tool at Lincoln: a teacup! When we opened the restaurant, we started using a teacup, which is really just 1 cup (240 ml), because the coffee station is next to the pasta station and all the teacups are right there, easy and accessible. We use a heaping cup for dumplings that have a simple sauce or a scant cup for dumplings that have a rich meat sauce.

Cook your gnocchi in abundantly seasoned—in other words, salted—water at a gentle simmer. I like to think of the water as the seasoning of the pasta dough. As the water is absorbed by the dumpling as it cooks, the salt brings out the flavor of the dumpling. The water should be seasoned, but not salty. Simmer, do not boil. You should have moving bubbles, not a rapid boil, which can break apart your dumplings.

Don’t overcook. Aim for al dente—that is, tender but still firm to the bite. Al dente literally translates as “to the tooth.” I like to say that dumplings should have some toothiness but not stick in your molars. Most ricotta and potato gnocchi should be removed from simmering water when they start to bob and rise to the top of the pot. If your dumplings cook for too long, they will absorb too much water and become dense and overly chewy. Some dumplings need to cook longer; gnocchi made from semolina and chestnut flour are denser and require more cooking time. In general, dumplings cook for no more than 2 or 3 minutes. Frozen dumplings will require another 1 or 2 minutes.

Use a slotted spoon to remove your poached dumplings from the water, and finish cooking them by gently simmering them in warm sauce for 1 minute. If your sauce is too thick, add 2 Tbsp of the pasta cooking water to it.
For most dumplings, the sauce is not merely a dressing for the dumplings. The addition of sauce is actually the final step in completing the dish, because the dumplings are cooked briefly in the pan with the prepared sauce. Almost all dumpling recipes in this post are followed by suggested sauce pairings. At the end of each sauce recipe, you’ll find detailed instructions for finishing the dumpling recipes.

Nothing is perfect. These are wonderful handmade dumplings, and they should look like it. Don’t worry about them being perfectly shaped. They should be rustic, toothsome, and comforting—and that’s perfect enough.