GNOCCHI!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Plating food for individual portions always allows for some artistic touches! this dish allows one get real artistic!

Gnocchi is type of pasta and there are three types....
the one I am going to tell you about is called 'Parisienne'

Again it is made from the most simple and basic ingredients

Flour, Butter, salt, Eggs and water!

Gnocchi can be served with a million sauces..the most basic being made from another local Italian ingredient 'tomato'

here is a take on 'Gnocchi Parisienne' with a tomato sauce

for the gnocchi you need
water            250 ml
butter             50 grams
salt                 5   grams
Refined flour   160 grams (maida)
eggs               4
Parmesan cheese ( if u can get hold of it)  50 grams (grated)

Process
I am going to make this very simple for you ...

    1)mix the butter, salt and water in a pot and heat it till the butter melts
Now get the pot of the heat and add your flour little by little so that it doesn't form lumps

2) take a wooden spoon and mix the flour into the water and butter mix
3) now put the pot back on heat and keep in stirring the wooden spoon vigorously till a time comes when the mixture will start leaving the sides on the pot without leaving any small bits stuck to the pot.

Now your mixture is ready to be cooked in water!

all you need to do is put it in a piping bag with a small 1cm nozzle and pipe out 2 cm cylinders into a pot of boiling salted water. Cook these gnocchi till they start to float in the boiling water ...then drain.

For the sauce

in a container take 500 grams of tomatoes, 6 garlic cloves, some basil leaves, some oregano and about 100ml olive oil.  cook this in an oven at 120 degrees Celsius for about 30-40 minutes and then put it all through a mixer.!

you can serve the gnocchi with this sauce in many ways but since we want it to be artistic..i'd suggest you try and do something like this!

recipee for your very own fresh pasta dough!

Pasta is traditionally made from durum what flour..( it has a darker husk) and eggs.

Nevertheless we can use normal refined flour as well. ( bakers flour/ strong flour if u can get hold of would be perfect)

all you need is

flour( maida-strong)    200 grams
salt                              2 grams
Eggs                            2
Olive oil                      15 ml
Semolina (rava)           50grams

*(for every 100 grams of flour use 1 egg.)*


sift the flour , add the salt (sprinkle it and make sure it is mixed through the flour)
now make a well in the centre ...crack your eggs in the well and add the olive oil . With a fork break down the egg yolk and mix it with the oil.
Now you can get your hands dirty and make a dough!

you can always apply some flour to your hands so that the dough doesn't stick to them but remember too much of extra flour and you will change the recipe and make the dough hard.

once you have made the dough--check it..feel it with washed hands ( just a finger will do)
It should be fairly hard and not soft like our chapati dough! BUT at the same time not so hard that you can see cracks in the dough!

NOW...this is the most important step.

you will be required to wrap the dough in plastic wrap and keep it in the fridge for 30 minutes.
(this relaxes the gluten and makes your pasta not stretch and contract like a rubber band when u roll it)

once the dough has been rested get it out of the fridge and leave it to come at room temperature so that it becomes easier to roll! now cut it into two halves and roll it through a pasta machine , once you get a flat sheet sprinkle some semolina so that they don't stick to each other and the machine. Now cut it and boil it in boiling salted water!
( the semolina will fall off in the water and not make any changes to the taste of the final product)

To roll it and cut it is an ART...I will tell you that in another post..in the mean time you can have a look at some videos on youtube which show the rolling process!!

Abhijeet.

pasta when cut and par boiled, stored in two trays with olive oil so that it doesn't stick!