In Italy you can find gnocchi made with ricotta cheese and flour (without potatoes), gnocchi with roasted pumkin or beetroots instead of potatoes, with chestnuts flour instead of regular flour.
When I start talking about gnocchi, during my cooking classes, I realize that people usually knows just the potatoes dumplings.
It’s normal, they are a symbol of the Italian gastronomy and easy to found in many grocery stores.
I love the homemade potatoes dumplings, they are so different from the industrial ones of course! So soft and delicate… they melt in your mouth.
But the universe of dumplings is various!
In Italy you can find gnocchi made with ricotta cheese and flour (without potatoes), gnocchi with roasted pumkin or beetroots instead of potatoes, with chestnuts flour instead of regular flour.
The consistancy changes according with the ingredients, sometimes the dough is compact enough to be rolled out, cutted and pressed againts the ribs of a fork, sometimes can be shaped with a cookie cutter ( like the Roman ones, made with semolina), or spooned directly in boiling water when they are too soft.
The gnocchi that you see on the blog today are the ones of my childhood, the sicilian gnocchi or cavateddi, made just with water and durum wheat flour.
They have a good consistency and they rest “al dente”, they are perfetc for
those who don’t like the potatoes gnocchi… and thank to their strong character they can support an important sauce … like a meat ragù.
Ingredients:
500 g. (17.6 oz) semolina (durum wheat flour) – salt – lukewarm water.
Put the flour on the wooden board, make a well in the middle, add a good pinch of salt and some lukewarm water. Start kneading adding gradually more water if necessary. The dough must be elastic and compact.
Wrap it in a clingfilm and let it rest for one hour.
Divide the dough into five parts, take one piece and cover the rest while you are working the first one.
Roll out into a 1 cm snake shape, cut it into 2 cm pieces. At this point you can leave the gnocchi as they are or you can press each piece against the rib of a fork of a coarse cheese grater.
Cook the gnocchi in boiling salted water, when they come up they are ready to be seasoned with your favorite sauce. Serves 6
Sicilian gnocchi
