As an Italian-American, I grew up making homemade pastas, meatballs, and sauces. This particular recipe is from my Italian language/culture class in fifth grade with Mr. Peruzzi. Mr. Peruzzi was around the same age as my grandfather, who taught French to my fifth grade class. While we were at it, we also learned Spanish all throughout elementary school at St. Jerome School. Mr. Peruzzi and I bonded over being Italian as my last name is Speredelozzi. 

The day we learned about traditional Italian cuisine, my whole class walked across the parking lot, into St. Jerome’s, down to the tiled church basement, and stood around the large metal table in the church’s large kitchen. He handed us this recipe while we made linguine, traditional pizza, and the gnocchi. 

The next week, my father and I bought the ingredients we needed and he taught me the techniques of making gnocchi (explained below) as learned from his grandmother. While I formed the gnocchi, my father started in on the homemade meatballs and sauce. He explained that the sauce tastes better if you cook the formed meatballs in it—in which he was right. 

Gnocchi holds a special place in my heart and after trying this recipe out, it will in yours too. So what makes it so special? What makes this recipe different from others you’ll find online is the addition of parmesan cheese in the gnocchi. Don’t skip out on it, even if you have to go to the grocery store impromptu, the addition is worth the trouble.

If you glance over the beginning of the recipe you’ll notice how time-intensive it is, but don’t let that deter you. Set a few hours aside, maybe make sauce and meatballs while you’re at it! In all honesty this is a very easy recipe to make. Channel your inner Italian, channel the legacy of Mr. Peruzzi, channel your love of food, and finally, have fun!

Preptime: at least an hour

Cooktime: ~2 minutes

Yield: A lot

Note: You will need a potato ricer

Ingredients:

2.5 medium russet potatoes or ~2 cups russet potatoes

2 cups flour

1 egg

¼ cup grated parmesan cheese

3 tablespoons salt

Instructions:

1. Peel potatoes

2. Boil potatoes for 35 minutes or until knife goes through them easily

3. Take them out of the water and wait until they’re just cool enough to work with

4. Take the potato ricer to rice all of them onto a clean surface

5. Mix together with the flour, parmesan cheese, and egg

6. Knead dough for about 7 minutes

7. Once the ingredients are well incorporated, cut off a small 3-4 ounce piece of dough

8. On a lightly floured work surface, using your hands, roll the piece of dough into a uniform thin ½ inch rope

9. Continue till all the dough is rolled the same

10. Cut ropes into 1 inch pieces 

—> Take time to boil salted water in a large pot

11. Take your thumb, push it into the center and roll in towards you to make an indent into the gnocchi (good for catching sauce!). 

—> For another method, take a fork and roll the gnocchi down the back of it for the tines to make indents in it.

12. Working in batches, cook gnocchi in the salted boiling water

13. Gnocchi are done when they float to the surface

14. Remove from water and add your favorite sauce and parmesan cheese

Note: uncooked gnocchi freeze well!