Finally, I managed to make a recipe I read a long time ago on an English site: fried potato gnocchi! You might say: “But how? Fried?”. Well, let’s say pseudo-fried, fried not fried, using my faithful air fryer, the Airfryer, bought about 6 years ago! It should be retired by now to make room for the bigger one, but I’ll tell you more in the recipe!
Oh my, and how good they turned out! I’d say even almost better than french fries! I only made a test portion and they were gone before I could even take pictures… And it takes almost nothing to prepare them, even in the oven, as my reader Loredana did: you’ll find everything explained in the recipe!
To make the air fryer fried gnocchi, I used ready-made vacuum-packed gnocchi, here in the Netherlands I find De Cecco, and I think it’s better to use these instead of fresh ones, which, being softer, might fall apart during cooking. And then just a little oil, salt, spices, and 10 minutes. You hardly dirty anything and they are totally vegan! So happy I am…
Some other delicious and light side dishes thanks to the air fryer:
- Difficulty: Very easy
- Cost: Very cheap
- Preparation time: 1 Minute
- Cooking time: 10 Minutes
- Portions: 1
- Cuisine: Healthy
- Seasonality: All seasons
Ingredients
- 3.5 oz potato gnocchi (preferably vacuum-packed)
- 1 tsp extra virgin olive oil (1 measuring teaspoon)
- to taste dried thyme (or other spices as desired)
- 1 pinch salt
- Points per serving = 5 WW points
Tools
- Oil Sprayer
- Air Fryer
Preparation
First, weigh out 3.5 oz of gnocchi, which is suitable for 1 person.
Here are the few ingredients needed for this recipe. I’ve suggested using 1 teaspoon of oil to avoid stressing over Weight Watchers points, after all not all my readers count them. But I used oil spray, and for me, 10 sprays correspond to half a teaspoon of oil! So the portion points would be 4.5, even less since some of the oil sticks to your hands and the bowl!
Then put salt, oil, and dried thyme on the gnocchi and mix well with your hands to coat all the gnocchi.
Cook the seasoned gnocchi directly in the air fryer’s basket at 356°F-392°F for 10 minutes, enough for one portion. If you make more portions, I suggest not adding more than 400g of gnocchi in the basket. Shake the basket occasionally during cooking.
In this recipe, you see photos of my old air fryer, which was smaller and less powerful, so I set the temperature to 392°F. Now I still have a Philips but the XXL, so I just put the gnocchi at 356°F.
10 minutes should be enough otherwise cook for a few more minutes. The photo shows how the gnocchi should be golden at the end of cooking.
For oven cooking, I leave you the instructions and photo of this recipe made by a dear reader and friend, Loredana Berto, whom I thank for the collaboration! Loredana put 5.3 oz of potato gnocchi with 1 teaspoon of oil, salt, and parsley in a clay baking dish. She baked in a ventilated oven at 428°F for 15 minutes and then used the grill function for another 15 minutes. Additionally, Loredana recommends frequently checking the gnocchi in the last quarter hour to avoid burning them. And here’s the result: they turned out excellent!
And now our air fryer fried potato gnocchi are ready! I added slices of lemon as a garnish, but next time I will squeeze some over them: the gnocchi that touched the lemon absorbed a bit of flavor and were delicious!
I didn’t think they would turn out this good, and 3.5 oz seemed too little but it makes a nice bowl.
They are crispy on the outside but remain firm inside so you have to chew, they don’t go down like french fries, you know what I mean? Those who are on a diet will surely understand! Let me know if you liked this recipe… for now, I wish you:
Enjoy your meal!
by Giovanna Buono
Notes
Source: Air Fried Crispy Gnocchi
