RECIPE: Baked potato gnocchi alla Sorrentina

Winter is officially here, which means it’s the perfect time for cosy and delicious food! Our Comfort Cooking collection is full of amazing books with seasonal recipes from expert foodies like Julia Busuttil Nishimura, Josh Niland and more. Today we’re featuring a recipe for Baked Potato Gnocchi alla Sorrentina from Silvia Colloca’s fantastic new cookbook, Simple Italian: The essentials of Italian home cooking.

Happy cooking!

Baked potato gnocchi alla Sorrentina

Serves: 4

If you’ve always thought a steaming bowl of gnocchi is the epitome of comfort food, picture a baking dish full of these nuggets, coated in luscious red sugo and dotted with stretchy mozzarella. This is the way they do it in Sorrento, and it is as magnificent as it sounds.

Ingredients

Basic potato gnocchi
850 g starchy potatoes (russet or desiree), unpeeled
Salt flakes
1 egg yolk
110-150 g (¾ – 1 cup) plain or type ‘OO’ flour

Sugo
2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
1 golden shallot, finely chopped
1 garlic clove, bashed with the back of a knife (or finely chopped, if you like a more pungent aroma)
400 g can peeled tomatoes or 400 ml passata
Salt flakes

Assembly
220 g tub bocconcini, drained
3 tablespoons freshly grated parmigiano
freshly ground black pepper
basil leaves, to serve

Method

Basic Potato Gnocchi (page 91)

Place the whole potatoes snugly in a large saucepan. Fill with cold water, add two fistfuls of salt and bring to the boil over high heat. Cook for 35-40 minutes or until tender. Drain well, then set aside for 10 minutes until cool enough to handle.

Press the potatoes through a potato ricer and allow to cool for about 5-10 minutes. Stir in the egg yolk and a small pinch of salt. (If you don’t have a ricer, you can use a masher instead, although you will need to peel the potatoes first.)

Start adding the flour, a little at a time. Depending on your potatoes and the type of flour you use, you may need to use a little more or less than indicated. You want a soft dough that is pliable and not tacky. I normally end up using about three-quarters and use the rest for dusting while I’m shaping the gnocchi. Don’t be tempted to add too much flour or your gnocchi will be heavy.

Cut the dough into four or five pieces, then place on a floured surface and roll them into 2 cm thick logs. Cut each log into 2-3 cm pieces.

You can leave them like that if you like. Alternatively, roll them over a wooden gnocchi board or press them against the tines of a fork to form ridges – gently but like you mean it. The tines will leave indentations in the gnocchi, ready to trap the sauce for the joy of your palate.

Once you have rolled all your gnocchi, dust them with flour and set aside. They are best cooked within a few hours.

Sugo (page 28)

Heat the olive oil in a large frying pan over medium heat, add the shallot and garlic and cook for 1 minute or until fragrant (watch it closely as the garlic can burn very quickly). Add the tomatoes or passata and season with salt, then reduce the heat to low and simmer for 30 minutes or until slightly reduced. If it looks too dry, you can add a little water.

Assembly

Bring a large saucepan of salted water to the boil and cook your gnocchi in batches. As soon as they float to the surface fish them out with a slotted spoon and drop them straight into the sugo. Toss to coat and encourage the flavours to mingle.

Transfer the gnocchi and sugo to a baking dish. Top with the bocconcini and parmigiano and bake for 15–20 minutes or until the cheese has melted and the sauce is bubbling. Finish with a grinding of pepper and a few basil leaves and serve.

—Simple Italian: The Essentials of Italian Home Cooking by Silvia Colloca (Pan Macmillan) is out now.

Simple Italian

The essentials of Italian home cooking

by Silvia Colloca

In Simple Italian, Silvia Colloca shares the essential dishes and techniques that are at the heart of the world's most popular cuisine. With 100 recipes and countless tips and tricks, you'll be cooking like a nonna in no time. Create silky smooth pasta, find out which shapes go with which sauce and learn the secrets to achieving perfectly creamy risotto and soft gnocchi every time...

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