Today we’re talking about potato gnocchi to which I’ve added chestnut flour for a more rustic and autumnal touch to this very popular recipe. Chestnut flour can be used for both sweet and savory preparations, just like in this case. The gnocchi with chestnut flour are made with a base of potatoes, a minimal percentage of chestnut flour, durum wheat semolina (but you can also use regular white flour) and contain no eggs. They are very easy to prepare, have a delicate taste and can be paired with simple sauces that do not completely cover the fragrance and flavor. Potato gnocchi with chestnut flour pair well with other typical autumn flavors, such as walnuts, hazelnuts, mushrooms, radicchio, and so on. I’ll explain how I prepared them.
- Difficulty: Very Easy
- Cost: Medium
- Rest time: 30 Minutes
- Preparation time: 15 Minutes
- Portions: 3
- Cooking methods: Stovetop
- Cuisine: Italian
- Seasonality: Autumn
Ingredients
- 1 1/4 cups durum wheat semolina
- 1/2 cup chestnut flour
- 1 lb red potatoes (yellow flesh)
- 1 pinch fine salt
Tools
- 1 Potato Ricer
Steps
Wash and boil the potatoes with the skin on. Once cooked, peel them (be careful not to burn yourself) and mash them using a potato ricer.
Let the mashed potatoes cool for about half an hour, spreading them out on a flat plate as much as possible to allow excess moisture to evaporate and prevent it from accumulating in our gnocchi.
After the time has passed, sift the durum wheat semolina and chestnut flour together in a large bowl, add half of the mashed potatoes, a generous pinch of salt, and start kneading. As the flours are absorbed, add more mashed potatoes until you obtain a firm but not hard dough, easy to work with.
It may not be necessary to add all the potatoes, so I recommend adding them little by little.
Let the dough rest, covered with plastic wrap, in the refrigerator for about half an hour, making it much easier and simpler to make the gnocchi.
Form the gnocchi. Flour the work table and break off pieces—more or less the same weight—from the dough, flour them lightly and shape them into cylinders about 8 inches long; gently work them with the palms of your hands, without pressing them. From the cylinders, cut small gnocchi (in the photos, the gnocchi are about the size of a hazelnut) that we will flour and roll with the tip of our fingers, from the cut side, always using great care.
Heat some water and once it boils, add salt, bring it back to a boil, and drop in our gnocchi. Cover, bring it back to a boil, and drain them as soon as they rise to the surface (those in the photo took about 2 minutes) and dress them with the chosen sauce. To check the doneness of our gnocchi, it’s always good to taste them.
The cooking time depends on the size of the gnocchi. The larger they are, the longer it will take to cook them perfectly.
Bon appetit
