Easy as Pie (& Other Lies): The Keys to Good Gnocchi.

The first time I tried a gnocchi (potato dumpling) recipe, most dumplings fell apart in the boiling water, and I was left with a gooey, starchy mess. The ones that didn't fall apart were very heavy and chewy. Basically, I ended up with an odd combination of mashed potatoes and what tasted like underdone pasta. Then I found a recipe in the September/October 2011 edition of Cook's Illustrated, and I finally succeeded at making gnocchi. I used it in combination with this recipe to create a meal. I think I managed to simplify the Martha Stewart recipe a bit by adding fresh spinach to the sausage mixture at the end instead of bothering with all the broccoli-rabe-ice-bath steps and not completely caramelizing the onions.

Thanks, Martha, for this turkey centerpiece idea,

but I think I'll just buy a houseplant for fall home decor.

What I did wrong the first time making gnocchi:
1) Added too much flour. Most of the time, too little flour means not enough gluten to stimulate during kneading, but because I didn't have a good binding agent, too much meant that I was basically working with way too much starch, and the dough didn't stick together while kneading.
2) Didn't use a binding agent. Some recipes avoid egg, but in this one the egg makes the dough easier to handle, come together easier, and not fall apart without making the gnocchi heavy.
3) Over-kneaded. Because I had difficulty getting the dough to stay together, I over-handled it, and the dough that formed made chewy, dense dumplings.

I was going to go through the steps of the dumplings themselves, but I got so caught up in cooking that I completely forgot to take pictures until the gnocchi was already finished! Luckily, I found where someone else had already gone through the recipe step-by-step: Tracey's Culinary Adventures: How-To: Homemade Gnocchi. **I did change the ingredient proportions because I used 1.5 pound bag of Steam n' Mash potatoes and then put those through a ricer. If you do that, you can still use one egg (trying to use 3/4 of an egg is just too complicated!), but reduce the flour by 1/4 cup and 1/4 tablespoon and the salt by 1/4 teaspoon.**

Here is a how-to for shaping gnocchi, although if you don't want to shape it, you certainly don't have to. The ridges are supposed to help hold sauces.

So for the rest of the recipe...

I heated the oil over medium-low heat, adding the onions and stirring occasionally for about 5 minutes, until the onions were a light golden color. You can continue until the onions are a deep golden-brown and completely caramelized, but because they start to taste sweeter at this stage, I go on and add the sugar and red wine vinegar. The vinegar will cause steam (you can sort of see it in the fourth picture) and hissing, so try not to stand over the pan when you add it; it can make your eyes sting!

Once the vinegar has evaporated (the strong smell will have dissipated, about 1 minute), add the sausage, breaking it up and cooking until browned. Then add the spinach. Don't be afraid to add an entire box; fresh spinach will wilt way down. Once the spinach had wilted, I spread the mixture in the bottom of a casserole dish.

For the browned butter, I melted 6 tablespoons of unsalted butter over medium heat and cooked until it was lightly browned and fragrant, about 3 minutes. This can be started just before the water for the gnocchi starts to boil; that way you can drop the cooked gnocchi by the slotted spoonful into the browned butter. Remember not to let the gnocchi float for more than about 45 seconds. They'll get tough.