Day 3- Gnocchi Fritti

Or, fried potato gnocchi with black truffle Gorgonzola sauce with fresh pears and pancetta.

This is another recipe from the book Cafe Firenze: Food and Drink Recipes from the Tuscan Sons. The recipe called for Prosciutto, but I substituted pancetta because I had some left over from last night. This was my first time making a successful batch of gnocchi- I guess the tips from Fabio's class paid off! We just need to get a meat grinder so that we can mash the potatoes a little bit more efficiently.

To make the gnocchi, my little sister and I took 10 potatoes peeled them and then boiled them for about 45 minutes. Its important to use Russet potatoes, because they have a lower starch content. Starchier potatoes will make the gnocchi chewy. We used a potato masher to mash the potatoes to make them light and fluffy, but Fabio suggests using a meat grinder. We then added a pinch each of nutmeg, salt and pepper. We added in 2 small-ish eggs and 8oz of melted butter. We mixed all of this together using my fancy green mixer, Amelia. (Yes, I named my mixer. Judge me.)

Then we put the potato mixture on a sheet pan, and let it sit in the fridge over night. This is important because it draws some of the moisture, and will create a better dough.

Today I took out the potatoes, and split them into two batches. I put the first batch into the mixture and added about 1.5 cups of flour half a cup at a time. I can't quite give you an exact measurement for the flour, but you can tell when you've added enough if when you squeeze some of the dough between your thumb and forefinger, none gets stuck to either appendage.

Now, separate the dough into smaller batches, take one of the smaller sections and roll it out into a snake-like shaped piece of dough. Use a butter knife to cut 1/2 inch pieces. Viola! Gnocchi.

To fry it, heat oil in a pan, and drop in a few gnocchi at a time. You can tell its time to turn them over when the sides start to brown.

Next, make the black truffle gorgonzla sauce. Take out about 8 ounces of Italian Gorgonzola. Fabio says to use creamy, but I could only find crumbled and it turned out just fine. Anywho, heat 1/2 cup of heavy cream in a saucepan over low heat until it starts to lightly boil. BE CAREFUL! Milk burns so, so quickly. Remove the cream from the heat, and add it to the gorgonzola. Add 1 tbsp black truffle oil. This stuff is really expensive. We're talking $20.00 for a can that's smaller than a soda can. I had some left over from another recipe I made, and I do think it was important to the dish. But I'm just warning about the expense!

I then fried up some of the pancetta, put it on the plate, then added some of the gnocchi. I arranged a few slices of pear on top of that, then drizzled the sauce over it. I also added some of the left over balsamic glaze from last night, just because I adore it, and would eat it with a spoon.