whole-wheat potato gnocchi with creamy mushroom alfredo sauce

(this dish is great to make when friends who like to cook come over. involve them in the gnocchi-making, and there's all sorts of random conversations that can happen. serves 2-3.)


gnocchi

2.2 lbs potato (1 kg)

350 g white whole-wheat flour

1 egg

2 tbsp salt

pepper

Peel the potatos. Cut them into small pieces so that they cook quickly, and place them into boiling water. Cook them until soft. Mash them and add salt, 300 g. flour, pepper, and egg. Reserve the extra 50 g when shaping the gnocchi.

Shape the gnocchi. Take a small handful of dough, and slowly shape a long snake-like rope with it. Cut the rope into small 3/4 inch squares. Roll the cut pieces into a circle. To shape the gnocchi, the basic idea is to gently press a small dough ball against a ridged surface to make the gnocchi curl like a striped, fat C. Some people use the back of a fork, but I have this little wooden gnocchi shaper.

For a video up until the shaping: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oWtaqrcUPsE
For a video regarding shaping gnocchi with a fork: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eOAe0ILN_1g

With practice, you can do this fairly quickly. Two friends and I had a good pipeline going, and we finished shaping the gnocchi in 40 minutes or so. After you shape the gnocchi, place them on double-folded paper towels that have flour sprinkled over.

Once all the gnocchi are shaped, put one paper towel's worth of gnocchi at a time in boiling water. Once all the gnocchi have floated to the top, remove them and put them in a dish.

Serve with salad and crusty bread.



creamy mushroom alfredo sauce

1/3 cup half and half
1 lb of mushrooms (a mixture of crimini and portabella), cut into small pieces
1/4 to 1/2 cup parmesan cheese (I tend to go towards the upper end of this range, since I like cheese a lot)
1 clove garlic, minced
olive oil
salt and pepper

Add a teeny tiny bit of olive oil to the pan over medium heat. Add the garlic and stir until fragrant. Slowly add the mushrooms, followed by the half and half. Add salt and pepper to taste.

T-100: Peel the potatoes and put water in a large pot to boil.
T-85: Start cutting the potatoes (into small pieces, so that they're cooked quickly) and placing in the boiling water as they're cut.
T-70: Pass the potatoes through a potato ricer. (Since I don't have one of these, I just use a wire mesh strainer.)
T-60: Mix the gnocchi dough, and start to shape them. Get a pipeline going with as many people as possible. If at all possible, parallelize the tasks.
T-20: Start the sauce while boiling the gnocchi.
T-15: If you have an extra person around, have them start the salad.
Dinner-time: Hopefully, the end game worked out and you can all sit down to dinner with a good bottle of wine.