Olive Oil Gnocchi

Easy to make and tastes delicious. Probably the easiest fresh pasta to make and it doesn’t require any specialty equipment. Extremely versatile, gnocchi can be added to sauce straight out of the boiling water, lightly dried after boiling and fried in Telegraph Hill extra virgin olive oil or baked in the oven in the sauce and topped with cheese.

The gnocchi can be frozen on trays lined with baking paper then transferred to bags once frozen.

• 1kg floury potatoes, medium size, washed well. (You can use any root vegetable but the flour quantities will vary depend on how much moisture is in the vegetable. I recommend using potatoes first then trying kumara, pumpkin, carrot or parsnip)
• 1 ½ cups white flour plus more for your hands and bench
• Salt
• 1x Egg
• 2 tbls Telegraph Hill Thyme Sage & Rosemary Extra Virgin Olive Oil or Telegraph Hill Roast Garlic Olive Oil
• 300g Telegraph Hill Puttanesca Tomato & Olive Sauce

1. Place the unpeeled potatoes in a pot covered with cold salted water and bring to the boil. Simmer for 30 min or until they are easily pierced with a knife or skewer. (Using unpeeled potatoes reduces the amount of water the potato will absorb during cooking)
2. Remove from the water and allow to cool enough to handle
3. Peel the potatoes (skin should come off quite easily) and then force the potatoes through a sieve with a spoon to form a fine mash and leave to cool. (If you leave the potatoes to cool too much first they will be harder to get through the sieve.) Tip, It is easier to wash the sieve straight away.
4. Mix the flour with the salt in a bowl and the olive oil, egg and potato together in a large bowl
5. Add the flour into the potato mixture and mix with your hands until the mixture starts to clump together (similar to making scones)
6. Gather the dough together and press into a ball
7. Transfer to a floured bench and slowly kneed together with clean hands for approximately 1 min. The dough should be slightly sticky, take care not to overwork the dough or you will end up with chewy gnocchi.
8. Place the ball of dough in a clean bowl and cover with cling film.
9. Take a piece of dough about the size of your fist at a time from the main ball and roll it out with your hands on a floured bench to form a “rope” about the size of your thumb.
10. Using a sharp knife cut the “rope” into pieces approximately 2.5cm long and store them on a tray lined with baking paper.
11. Complete for all the dough
12. The gnocchi can stay at room temperature for 2-3 hours before cooking or it can be frozen straight away. Avoid putting it in the fridge as it will absorb become sticky and difficult to cook.
13. To cook the gnocchi add it to a large pot of boiling water in small batches, when it floats its cooked.
14. Heat the puttanesca sauce until hot in a saucepan and then add the cooked gnocchi to it and serve with parmesan cheese