I have a confession to make…I am a potato person. There, I said it.

Potatoes in all forms, sizes and formats. Fried, steamed, cooked, in the oven, you name it!

Gnocchi are another delicious excuse to consume potatoes, which explains why this recipe MUST appear in this blog, and why this is one of the few dishes I consume on a regular basis.

I must say, for me the best gnocchi in the world are the ones made by my Uruguayan grandma. The thing is, Uruguayans (like Argentinians) are mainly of Italian and Spanish descent. And besides the out-of-this-planet meat and BBQs, they traditionally eat many dishes which have their origins in Italy. The funny thing about it is that the dishes keep their Italian names yet they are written like they sound in Spanish. This is how “gnocchi” become “ñoquis” in Uruguay (and Argentina, for that matter).  You see? With only 3 million inhabitants this country is full of surprises.

My granny is faraway, and it never occurred to me to ask her her recipe yet (definitely something for my to-do list!). But this is not keeping me from enjoying these little, soft, golden, cute dough balls, because I am making them based on a great recipe from “From Argentina with love”.

So let’s get to it…

Ingredients – gnocchi:

- 1 pound potatoes (500 g), peeled, quartered, cooked in boiling water until tender and drained (note: keep the water, which you can use later to boil the gnocchi)

- 2 eggs

- 1 cup ricotta cheese (125g)

- 2 cups flour (285g)

- salt

Cooking instructions – gnocchi:

Mix all the ingredients and mix well using first a potato ricer, then a fork or (like me) use your hands, until you get a firm ball of dough.

Take a handful of dough, and make a long, thin roll out of it (it should be as thick as a thumb). With a fork or a knife, cut the roll in little portions (as long as half a thumb). While in this process, add some flour if the dough is too sticky.

Repeat with the rest of the dough. Now all that is left is to roll the gnocchi down a fork, to obtain a nice indented pattern that will absorb a maximum of glorious tomato sauce. Once you have done that you throw them in a pot with boiling water, and as soon as they start floating on the surface, collect them with a slotted spoon and serve with any sauce of your liking, and eventually with some grated Parmiggiano.

While my grandmother would serve it with “tuco” (I also need to ask her about this recipe), this below is my own (free) interpretation thereof…

Ingredients – tomato sauce:

- 2 pound  tomatoes (1 kg)

- salt

- black pepper

- 1 tsp dry chili flakes

- 2 tbsp olive oil

- 2 garlic cloves, minced

Cooking instructions – tomato sauce:

With the tip of a knife, make a cross at the bottom of each tomato. Put them then in a pot full water that has just boiled. When the skin starts pulling off, drain the tomatoes and chop them or blend them, depending on how thick you like your sauce.

Heat up the olive oil on a pan, toss in the garlic. Leave one minute, then add the tomatoes, the salt, the pepper and the chili. Let simmer until the sauce thickens a bit.

Serve with your gorgeous gnocchi, and eventually some grated cheese, fresh basil…

Enjoy!!

UPDATE:  last time I prepared gnocchi (photo above) I added half a cup of flour to make them a little bit more firm to the bite, I have already adapted the recipe accordingly. I also added two grated carrots to the sauce (hence the orangish colour of the sauce, and its runny texture), but in retrospective I think it had been better to add only one. Finally, I added some grated Parmesan on top, which was de-li-cious. Feel free to experiment yourself!

Because it has been some days since I posted, today, double treat!

This is a reaaaaally nice pie…the delicate taste of zucchini and ricotta will convince even the most veggie-averse, I promise.

Ingredients:

- 3 medium size zucchini (should be about 600g), grated or finely chopped in the food processor

- salt

- 250g ricotta cheese

- 3 eggs, whole, slightly whisked

- 2 cloves of garlic, finely chopped

- 2 tsp basil, finely chopped

- pinch or two of freshly grated nutmeg

- 2 rolls of ready-made puff paste or any other dough you like

- 1 extra egg, slightly whisked

Cooking instructions:

Heat up the oven at 200°C.

Mix the zucchini with the salt and leave in a strainer for 30 minutes.  Then press the zucchini with a spoon to get rid of  excess moist ; this step is very important to avoid a soggy pie.

Mix the zucchini, ricotta, eggs, garlic, basil and nutmeg in a bowl. Taste and add salt if necessary.

Grease a baking tin (alternatively, cover with baking paper), put in it one of the paste rolls, cover with the filling, then cover the whole with the second sheet of paste. Press the borders of the paste together to “close” the pie.

Brush the top of the pie with the extra egg (for a golden crust), then prick the top with a fork to allow for the steam to get out when the pie is in the oven (with the end benefit that the top of the pie will be flat and even).

Put the pie in the oven until the crust is golden brown (for me it took 30 minutes).

That’s it my friends. Now enjoy!!