I saw an episode of 'Chef At Home' with Michael Smith yesterday wherein he made gnocchi. Plain, simple, and fresh. Michael Smith is my favorite Food Network personality because he's knowledgeable, modest, believes in using fresh local ingredients, and uses his intuition over recipes.
This recipe consists of 2 ingredients: Russet potatoes, and all-purpose flour.
I baked the potatoes in their skins at 400F for about 45 minutes until very soft and buttery, skinned them while still hot, and put them through the fine holes of a grater to get a very fine texture.
Then I added the flour - about 1/2 as much flour by volume compared to the potatoes. I kneaded the dough, constantly adding dashes of flour until it resembled a bread dough.
The dough ball was cut into 4 pieces, each of which were rolled into long logs with a 3/4 inch diameter or so. The logs were cut roughly into 1/4 inch cylinders, sprinkled with more flour, rolled gently into ovals, then shaped with a fork.
A couple handfuls of the fresh gnocchi were boiled up, then fried in garlic and olive oil for tasting. Pretty good... can't beat the freshness of handmade gnocchi.
I tossed most of the gnocchi into bags and immediately froze them. Some of them were squished and left misshapen because they were still malleable. Next time what I should do is lay them on a sheet pan to freeze, then put them into bags. That way they'll maintain their characteristic shape. I'd also like to make some sweet potato gnocchi next time. My suspicion is that they're made with a mixture of russet potatoes and sweet potatoes, but I'll have to find out.