I need to be from-my-heart-honestly clear, though... I absolutely HATE cooking. I'm actually not big on eating either, I don't get excited about 'foodie-stuff'. I don't care about fancies or fusions, about props or presentation, heck, I don't even care about variety. Food just doesn't impress me and if I lived alone my refrigerator would be filled with a water jug, a cheese tray, a vegetable tray and a fruit tray (all pre-prepared) and I would live on pasta and perogies (both home-made in huge batches and then individually-sized frozen) so I would only have to actually cook every once in a very little while. I'm not bad at cooking. I know how to cook and I do it daily but it's a chore; it's something that needs to be done and is certainly not something I actually want to be doing. Maybe it's the clean-up part that I hate the most and have let myself come to a point where the dread of cleaning has grown to overshadow what could be the joy of cooking. I think I really did like cooking at one point but now it's a chore that just sucks!
Having admitted all of that - please don't hate me - there are a few things (always comfort foods) my family will request I make for our Sunday Dinner get-togethers and I am more than happy to cook up a storm for them... maybe because I know how much they really enjoy their favourite dishes. Whether it's old-school macaroni and cheese with fried balogna and home-baked beans, lasagna with ceasar salad and milk powder rolls, apple pie, spaghetti with meatballs or even just a big ol' bowl of mashed potatoes or stuffing as a side dish, it doesn't matter, I find I truly love making because my family loves enjoying and I love the company of my family!
We had a pork roast dinner at my moms house this past Sunday and I made the mashed potatoes. Because there was left-over potatoes, the request for last nights dinner (Tuesday) was Gnocchi and as I was pulling the potato container out of the fridge I thought... hey... why not document and share this family fav??
I have never used an actual recipe, except when baking sweets, I prefer to 'cook by feel' but I did actually log the measures for this batch as I made it so it would be easier to share. My methods are not authentic but they work and this is a top favourite of my family... coming in a close second to the number one favourite of lasagna.
**They do take a little time but are totally worth the work! And to make it a much simpler dinner I try to always have my premade gnocchi and meatballs frozen and at the ready for really easy dinners so I only have to make a nice fresh sauce on the actual day... cooking the gnocchi (directly from frozen) as explained below.**
So, here it is... get ready for a gajillion pictures!
Gnocchi with Tomato Sauce (and meatballs if desired)
Gnocchi Ingredients: (room temperature)
2 cups Mashed Potatoes
2 Eggs
1/8 tsp Salt
3 cups Flour (divided)
Directions:
Step one:
Combine potatoes, eggs and and salt in mixing bowl and mix to combine well. You can always mix by hand if you don't have an electric mixer, I just prefer to mix the lazy way.
*I always use red potatoes and leave the skins on when making mashed because I don't like to give up the extra skin nurtients and I also like the extra texture that skinless mashed potatoes just can't offer. Skin on, skin off, plain mashed, gralic mashed... it's all good, don't be afraid to give it a go with whatever mashed recipe you love... I even sometimes make gnocchi with leftover mashed squash.*
Step two:
Add 1 cup of the flour to above and mix well. Swich from blending blade to dough hook and add in another 1 cup of the remaining flour. Combine well using dough hook on low speed.
Step three:
Continue adding wee bits of flour until the dough is an un-stickable, workable consistency. It may take more or less than another 1/2 cup, depending on how much moisture the mashed potatoes have.
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| Falling off hook and sticking to fingers. Sticks to hook, NOT to fingers... perfect! |
Step Four:
Take the beautiful gnocchi dough and head to the rolling station!
Line a tray with a cotton cloth and sprinkle lightly with a little of the remaining flour or just sprinkle directly over the tray if you don't want to use a cloth... I just find it easier to pick up the cloth and shake the lil' dumplin's loose when it comes time to cook them.
All the rolling tools you will need are your hands, a knife and a fork... as well as a little flour for rolling and forking.
Step five:
Cut or pull off a handful of dough and snake that baby out, just like you used to do with Playdough! Roll it out until that rope is about 1/2" - 3/4" thick and then cut it into 1" pieces.
Just a note - these little 1" rope cut pieces (pictured left) can totally be your finished gnocchi dumplins if you just don't have the heart to FORK them! But I'm a sauce junkie and I love that forking makes perfect nooks that sauce can settle into for extra saucy sauciness!
As for the 'forking' technique: press fork into remaining flour and then press firmly into dumpling... seriously... press FIRMLY, it's fine if it even breaks right through - stick those babies to your work surface! Be sure to press fork into flour before EVERY fork press into each dough piece.
Step six:
Roll the dumplins by scraping them up and into themseves from beneath... here's a video snippet to hopefully show what I clearly have not clearly explained with my words.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6qqqBjt9_-k&feature=player_detailpage
And here is a picture of what the gnocchi should look like after rolling...
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| Top - nicely forked Bottom - neatly pinched |
Step seven:
Lay the lil' dumplins close together (but not touching) onto your prepared tray. When finshed rolling all of them just pop them into the refrigerator until ready to cook. I usually make them first thing in the morning and then it isn't a ton of work all at once.
*If freezing the gnocchi, just freeze on the tray and then shake them into a freezer bag or seal frozen in a food saver bag for an easy future dinner.
Step eight:
Really? Do you really want another step right now?? No, I guess not! You've done enough work for now... go watch a movie and relax for awhile!
Step nine:
COOKING!!!
- Bring a large pot of water to a rolling boil.
- Add gnocchi dumplins to pot and VERY GENTLY move them with a plastic or wooden spoon to keep them from sticking to the bottom of the pot when they sink. Continue to move them carefully every 30 seconds or so until they float to the top.
- As soon as they all float to the top, they are done... depending on how hot your stove element is, this should only take a few minutes so DO NOT leave them unattended; they usually float before the water has a chance to come back up to a full boil.
- Drain immediately and gently shake off the excess water before returning the pot or a serving dish... I use the pot because I'm too lazy to wash an extra serving dish.
Step ten:
TOSSING!!!
If you have a favourite sauce, by all means... use it, I'm sure it will be delicious!! My favourite is home made tomato sauce with either crumbled ground beef or meatballs in it and it works fantastically for tossing the gnocchi because the oil from the meat naturally rises to the top of the sauce when cooking and left undisturbed... so DON'T stir the sauce until after stealing a few tablespoons for tossing! Just scoop a few spoonfuls of the oil (juuuuuust enough to coat) and toss gently.
If you don't have a favourite sauce and want to try mine, I will post my own sauce recipe below.
*I coat the gnochhi with the oil because coating them with the thicker sauce tends to make them soggy where the light oil just keeps them free and losse without breaking them down.
Step eleven:
ENJOY!!!
Whether you prefer it plain (like my mom) or with parmesan (like me)... I hope you love every bite!
Basic Tomato Sauce
I like to can my own tomatoes and that's what I use to make my sauce but cans of tomatoes from the grocery store will work just fine!
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| My overcrowded kitchen during canning season... |
1 quart Crushed Tomatoes (or one 28 oz can)
Water (to equal that of the crushed tomatoes)
1 can Tomatoe Paste
Olive Oil
1 Tbsp Minced Garlic
1/2 Tbsp Onion Flakes (I use 1/2 a whole yellow onion if my mom is away,she is "allergic" but actually she just hates fresh onions)
1-2 tsp Sugar (to taste, depending on the acidity of the tomatoes you may need more or less)
1 Hot Pepper (for a little heat, if desired)
2 Tbsp Fresh Parsley (or Basil... whatever I have at hand in the freezer; mix'n'match is good, too)
Salt and Pepper (to taste)
Step one:
Coat bottom of large pot with olive oil over medium heat. Add in garlic, onion, salt and pepper to saute slightly for a few seconds... just until heated and well-combined.
Step two:
Add tomato paste to above and mix together gently.
Step three:
Add in the tomatoes, water, sugar and parsley... stirring gently to combine. Bring to a simmering boil then turn the heat down to medium/low. and cook gently for an hour-and-a-half to two hours or until desired consistency stir every half hour to check on sauce thickness.
Give it a taste about halfway through cooking and add in more salt if needed.
When it's done to your own preffered consistency, it's ready... ENJOY!!
Note about the hot pepper*If you want just a little heat flavour without actually having heat, put the pepper in whole without slicing... I like a hint of heat without having it HOT so I cut a tiny slit on either side if the pepper just to let out a medium heat. For a full-on hot sauce feel free to squish the seedy heat out of that soggy-cooked pepper after simmering in the sauce.
*If I am using meatballs in the sauce I just drop my pre-made, pre-frozen meatballs into the simmering sauce for the last forty-five minutes of sauce cooking time. Drop them straight in while still frozen and try not to disturb them too much while cooking but make sure they are all safely and cookably covered with sauce while not being too squished in. They should be cooked through with the forty-five minute cook time but if you are unsure just cut into one as a check test.
Basic Meatballs
2 lbs Lean Ground Beef
2 lbs Sausage Meat (hot or mild)
4 Eggs
1/2 cup Breadcrumbs
1/2 cup Parmesan Cheese
1 Tbsp Dried Parsley
1 Tbsp Minced Garlic
1 Tbsp Onion Flakes
2-3 tsp Salt
1 tsp Pepper
2 Tbsp Worcestershire Sauce
*Add in a little extra breadcrumbs and parmesan if mixture feels it will be too wet to roll into balls.*
Directions:
- Mix all ingredients together in a large bowl, mixing gently but thoroughly.
- Cover well and let set to marinate flavour in refrigerator for at least two hours.
- Roll into evenly sized balls and add desired amount to already cooking sauce and cook through as explained above; this recipe will make a lot of meatballs so freeze the rest for easy meatball dinners in the future.
*To freeze... Place freshly formed meatballs on a parchment-lined tray and freeze. Once frozen, just pop them off the tray and into a freezer bag or a food-saver vacuum bag and set them back into the freezer until you have use for them.
And there it is... a favourite family comfort dinner. Feel free to make your own substitutions and please, if you try making the gnocchi, let me know in the comments how it turns out! It's way easier than it appears and I hope you will love it as much as my own family does!
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