Gnocchi and Cheese

I love gnocchi--I mean, I do love potato in all of its forms. One dish that can often be found at family holidays is potatoes with cheese sauce. Everyone knows what macaroni and cheese is, so I thought about changing it up with gnocchi. That is how I came up with gnocchi and cheese.

So, I decided to recruit my husband and spend some time in the kitchen making gnocchi together. Gnocchi is much easier than I thought it would be! Gnocchi can also very easily be made vegan. Most recipes that I have come across call for potato, flour, salt, and egg. I have also found a handful of recipes that omit the egg. I decided to try it without the egg and it turned out amazing! I will include a basic recipe for gnocchi with this post, but I will wait to update the cheese part of it. I still want to perfect the cheese sauce and veganize it!

Gnocchi and Cheese

Ingredients:

• 2 lb Russet potatoes

• 1 tsp salt

• ~2.5 cups flour

Directions:

1. Place potatoes in a medium pot and cover with water about an inch over the potatoes. Bring to a boil and boil until tender ~15 minutes (should be able to easily pierce with a fork). Drain and let them cool until you can handle them.

2. Peel the potatoes. Rice the potatoes into a large bowl. Add salt and 1 cup flour. Stir to combine. Add in more flour in ½ cup increments until a dough begins to come together. Kneed for a few minutes in the bowl until smooth.*

3. Cut the dough in half and cut one half into 4 pieces (leave the other half to the side covered while you work). Taking small portions of the dough, roll into a log. Cut into uniform pieces. Shape with a fork and place on a floured baking sheet.**

4. Once all of the gnocchi has been made, begin to boil a pot of water. Add salt. Add the gnocchi in the salted boiling water in bunches. Cook until they float and then time one minute. They can be taken out of the water and set to the side. Continue this pattern until all gnocchi are cooked.

*If needed, you can add oil to help the dough come together.

**If the dough begins to get sticky, add flour into sections of the dough until it is smooth.

Taste: 9/10--I want to make a better cheese sauce.

Level of difficulty: 1/5--gnocchi are easy to make, but can be time consuming.

Notes for next time: I loved this! I want to try to make a vegan version of it!