Bar Alto’s famous gnocchi
Ingredients:
Desiree potatoes- 1.25 kg (skin on scrubbed and clean)
Plain flour – 330 gm
Salt- 20 gm
Method:
In a large pot cover potatoes with plenty of cold water and bring to a boil. Simmer till just cooked or a skewer or knife can pierce smoothly through and drain. Peel while still hot using a tea towel in one hand to hold the hot potatoes.
Pass the potatoes through a food mill or a potato ricer. You should end up with about 1kg of potato. Dust the work bench with a liberal dusting of flour and combine the flour in to the hot potato mix quickly working with a metal spatula. The texture should be like very soft dough, but it shouldn’t stick to your hands. Use more flour if needed to adjust the texture.
Cover the dough with a tea towel to keep it warm and take 1/8 portion at a time and roll gently in to 1 cm diameter sausages. Cut off into 2 cm sections and sprinkle with flour to keep it from sticking to each other. Roll the gnocchi over a gnocchi board or over the tines on a fork to make the classic gnocchi shape.
Bring a pot of salted water to boil and drop in the gnocchi in small batches. Gnocchi is done when they float to the surface.
Serve hot with a classic Piedmontese cheese sauce like a Robiola cream and flakes of smoked river trout.
