Valentine’s Day Special- Eggless Potato Gnocchi in Roasted Almond, Tomato and Garlic Sauce

Egg less Potato Gnocchi in Roasted Almond, Tomato and Garlic Sauce

Since the day we have shifted from Kashmir I have stayed with my husband for not more than 15 days. He has gone for some course. I had absolutely no idea army men study soooo much. Sigh! I’m too late in deciphering the what’s and whatnot’s of an army man. The ship has sailed, Elvis has left the building aur .. abb chidiya chug gai khet! This is how I will be living my life for next two months… WITHOUT HIM 😦

Last year I had gone for my course and this year it’s his turn..

He never gets me any gifts, absolutely nothing! But… Oh my God ! I couldn’t believe it 😯 He had sent for me a ‘death by chocolate’ cake and a box full of chocolates. Those ladies who have been through no-gift-getting-business shall understand my shock, a lovely shock at that. I MISS HIM, PERIOD.

*Gathering up myself, like a typical army wife and not letting my eyes to brim with tears* …..Well, I have been dying to make gnocchi since the day I had tasted it in Delhi. On 14th Feb, I just had to make something special. My elder brother was behind the lovely surprise that I got (doctors hide things well, *me thinks*). So, the valentine’s day lunch was enjoyed by my mom and brother (dad is fond of desi food more). I was anxiously waiting for his call so I had just a bite to check the flavors. My family loved it.

So,without further ado here is my recipe. Try it, make it and enjoy it.

Have a bite..

EGG LESS POTATO GNOCCHI-

Preparation time -30 min

Cooking time -30 min

Serves -2 (You need to double this recipe for a Fauji )

INGREDIENTS-

Potatoes- 3 medium size (people have so many names for the potatoes like Idaho potato or Yukun potato,etc. I just call it ALOO. To know which variety is good ,take the ones which are firm and when boiled the skin peels off easily. Avoid the flaky skin ones)

Water- to boil

Salt- to taste

All purpose flour or Maida- 3/4 to 1 cup

Olive oil or butter- 1 Tbsp

METHOD-

1. Wash and boil the potatoes in salted water until they are tender, approximately 25 minutes to half an hour in an open pan (lid can be put for quick cooking) so that the potatoes do not crack open due to over boiling. To test if the potatoes are cooked insert a knife lightly in a potato, if it goes smoothly inside, it is done.  We need potatoes a bit dry just like we use for aloo parantha. If you can manage crack free perfectly boiled potatoes you can even pressure cook them though I haven’t tried it.
2. Cool them just enough till you can work with them without burning your fingers. We need hot potatoes so that they can easily pass through the sieve. Peel the potatoes. Now press them with the help of the back of a spoon or your hand on a big size sieve so that the potatoes mash and pass through the sieve. If you have a potato ricer nothing beats that.
3. At this stage, taste the salt in potatoes and add salt if you require. Now lightly work with the potatoes with your fingers while adding a bit of maida. Keep on adding maida till the potatoes are no longer sticking to your hand.
4. Keep in mind to work lightly with your finger tips and not to over work with the mixture otherwise the gnocchi would not be airy but dense. Knead the dough just enough for it to come together just like we do while making a short crust pastry dough. That means no working with the knuckles, use only fingers and palms .
5. Now let the dough rest for 10 min. Cover it with a kitchen towel.
6. After 10 min, roll out the dough in a rectangular roll and cut into 3 equal size pieces.
7. Now roll each piece just like we roll gatte i.e. long cylinders or ropes, around 1 inch in diameter.
8. Cut each roll into as many pieces as you want (I had cut around 10-12 gnoccho 1 inch wide from each cylindrical roll so I had around 30-35 beautiful pieces of gnocchi)
9. Now comes the beautiful yet technical part of making the marks on it. Take a fork keep it inverted and press each gnoccho with the help of your first finger by pushing it slightly from top to bottom such that it rolls over to obtain a curve shape with a depression on one side.I did not click any pictures because of my occupied state of mind that time. For more ease I have found out an easy video on you tube for you guys to understand the procedure. Here it is. The person cooking in the video has NOT kept the fork like I had.I find the upside down fork method more convenient but it is entirely up to you.
10. Lightly dust the gnocchi with the flour so that they don’t stick to each other.
11. Put a colander of water on the stove and when the water comes to a rolling boil put the gnocchi in it.
12. It will hardly take 2-3 minutes for the gnocchi to come up on the surface.When all the gnocchi comes to the surface take them out together all at once with the strainer spoon/jhar. Do not take out if the gnocchi are still at the bottom.
    

    Happily Floating !

13. Now put 1 Tbsp of oil or butter in a pan and lightly toss the gnocchi in it so that they don’t stick to each other.
14. Take them out and put them in the sauce.

ROASTED ALMOND, TOMATO AND GARLIC SAUCE

I did my preparation and the cooking along with gnocchi. So the dish was done in an hour.

INGREDIENTS –

Tomato- 1 big (chopped )

Tomato puree- 1 can ( I had used Dabur’s homemade tomato puree can of 200 gm)

Almonds- around 20 (chopped)

Garlic pods- 8 or 9 (chopped)

Dried Thyme- 1/4 tsp

Seasoning sachet- 2 ( I had used Domino’s pizza seasoning sachets)

Red Chilly flakes or Crushed Red Pepper- 1 tsp

Corriander leaves-  2 Tbsp (finely chopped)

Cheese slice -1 slice (I had used Amul’s, the only one left in the refrigerator)

Butter- 1 tsp unmelted

Extra Virgin Olive oil- 2 Tbsp

Sugar- 1tsp

Salt- to taste

METHOD-

1. Take butter in a wok and roast roughly chopped almonds. When they turn slightly brown add the garlic and roast it.
2. Now put the tomatoes in the wok and roast them till they turn a bit tender.
3. Blend this mixture and put it again in the wok.
4. To this mixture, now add the tomato puree.
5. Add the seasoning, thyme,chilli flakes, sugar,cheese, corriander leaves and salt.
6. Bring it to a boil and simmer it. Let it thicken till it coats the back of the spoon.

Now add the gnocchi to this sauce. Pour 2 Tbsp of extra virgin olive oil on it and mix it in taking care that the gnocchi doesn’t break. Serve it with grated cheese on top (I had to omit this step because I had no cheese left)

Velvety and soft gnocchi

💡 Mitul’s Tip-

• The trick is that the boiled potatoes should have very little moisture inside.
• Do not add too much flour or else the gnocchi will turn out to be hard.
• If the flour is less the gnocchi will crack open while boiling.
• Do not the throw the water in the colander away completely. I had put approximately 1 cup of the water, left at the bottom of the colander having little bit of the residue in it, to thicken my sauce.
• Check the salt in the gravy and only then add.
• Do check the sourness of the sauce. You do not want to make the sauce too sweet either. I had put around 2 tsp sugar because I felt the puree was too sour for my taste.
• Instead of seasoning sachets, dried oregano+dried basil+dried parsley+dried rosemary can be used. Put 1/2 tsp each or according to your taste.
• Take out the pasta with the help of a strainer spoon or jhar (The big spoon used to take out poori with while frying) 🙂

Notes-

* You could add ricotta, parmesan, cream cheese or mozzarella, choice is yours.

*Pasta keeps on cooking even after taking it out from the water. It is better to cook the sauce first so that we can cut down the time and avoid over cooking.

*Stir fry the gnocchi on high flame in a non-stick pan as we just need to coat it with oil.

*You can use fresh oregano, parsley and thyme instead of corriander leaves.

*I like my pasta with a lot of sauce. So you can adjust the quantity of the sauce according to your liking.

*You can store the pasta in the refrigerator for a day or two in advance. After boiling it in hot water take them out and put them in ice-cold water. Drain and lightly toss them in olive oil to prevent sticking. Cool and store in an air-tight container. Refrigerate it. When You want to serve just toss the gnocchi in a non-stick pan to heat it up and add to a steaming hot sauce. You are ready to serve!

Airy, Melt in mouth gnocchi ready to be eaten

Enjoy 🙂

I WOULD LOVE TO HAVE A FEEDBACK 😀