GNOCCHI WITH TOMATO SAUCE
This Italian dish is simple and tasty, and makes a perfect appetizer. You need starchy potatoes for this recipe, and they should be cooked in their skins and peeled after they are cooked. If you get some gnocchi in excess, you can use them later and fry them in some olive oil.
4 servings:
Gnocchi:
1 kg starchy potatoes
200 g/6.6 oz flour
parmesan shavings and basil to garnish
Cook the potatoes unpeeled and while they cook you can start making the sauce (see below). Drain potatoes from water and ket them cool down a bit and then peel them. Crush them with a potato masher and mix thoroughly with flour into a light cohesive dough. Roll the dough out into finger-thick round bars on a floured surface and cut gnocchi of 2.5 cm/1 inch length. If the sauce is ready, you can start cooking them. Bring plenty of salted water to a boil and throw in the gnocchi. Cook until they come up and float on the surface of the water, remove them with a perforated spoon and drain from water. Serve by putting them on a plate with the sauce. Garnish with parmesan and basil.
Tomato sauce:
30 mL/1 fl oz fine olive oil
1 kg of fine tomatoes, halved
1 big carrot, sliced
1 celery stick, sliced
2 shallots or 1 onion, sliced
3 cloves of garlic, halved
1 sprig of thyme
salt and pepper to season
Bring all the ingredients to a light boil and then reduce to simmer and cook for about 20 minutes. The tomatoes should become dissolved into a saucy consistency after a while of cooking. Stir the sauce from time to time and press out the tomato meat from their skins if necessary. When done, strain the sauce (pass it through a sieve, stirring the mixture in the sieve so that you get out as much as possible from it). Keep warm until serving.