Potato Gnocchi with Wild Mushrooms.
This is one of the best ways to serve potato gnocchi, and one of the most delicious ways to eat wild mushrooms.
Gnocchi ai funghi.
A most pleasing dish – to eat, to make and to serve: you will rarely meet someone who will object to gnocchi or mushrooms; it is always a pleasure to craft edible things with your hands; and lastly, few textures are as lovely to bite into as velvety potato gnocchi and juicy and woody wild mushrooms. There is also of course plenty of garlic.
Potato and gnocchi are a match made in heaven, and this is probably the most elegant and sumptuous way of disposing of them. Egg, garlic and cheese are also excellent partners, and so put to good use here too. This is a recipe with very few but all the right ingredients.
One of the advantages of making gnocchi is that the dough requires no resting, and they are also very quick to cook. Although very simple and easy to make, there are of course several secrets to perfectly delicious gnocchi. Mild and delicate, texture and taste are everything here. Choose old potatoes, which will have less moisture – water is the gnocchi’s archfoe. For maximum flavour, cook the potatoes with their skins on, which improves their flavour. Peel the potatoes when they are still warm and put them back into the pan to evaporate more water out of them. (This is also a good way to make mashed potatoes).
Gnocchi need to be sagely salted – and have many salting opportunities. The gentlest way is to salt the water, so salt the potato cooking water and then the gnocchi cooking water, and you will not need to add any extra salt to the gnocchi dough or the final works.
Purists will insist on making gnocchi from potato and flour only. Whilst very delicious just the same, an egg with mushrooms is always a good thing, so a small egg yolk to help bind and add extra flavour in this recipe is a fine way to go. As for the proportion of flour, Italian potato gnocchi recipes will range between 16 to 50%. 20% is a good ballpark if you succeed in having dried potatoes and procuring an egg yolk, but as with all things natural it is sensible to add or take depending on where that particular day takes you. The dough should be compact but soft to the touch. You can of course always add more flour as you go, and cook one as a test before you roll them all out.
The shapes as always in Italian cooking are crucial, and you may play around according to the shape and size of your mushrooms. This is a lovely dish when the gnocchi are quite sizeable and mushrooms cut in irregular, beefy chunks. A mix of mushroom varieties is key of course – which wild mushrooms typically are, to add a bit more visual pizzazz as well as layers in texture and flavour. This is entirely a personal style matter and worth experimenting with.
Flouring the gnocchi on the surface when you make them is important so that they don’t stick to each other when they cook in the water. And putting them on a chopping board as you shape them is a good idea, so that you can bring the whole board straight to the pan and plunge them in easily. As with pasta, the cooking water is a great source for sauce, and little bit will be indispensable in helping bind the final dish. Gnocchi should never be cooked over heat in their condiment for any significant periods as they will break, so make sure the mushrooms are very warm when you drop them in, so that the final step is minimal, just enough to coat them with the juices and let the flavours settle together.
Freshly grated parmesan on the plate is the cherry on top – and this works better with the large grate, which hopefully is an additional deterrent from buying already grated cheese. (Half the effort, half the taste).
Finally, it’s important that mushrooms also are kept away from water, so if you are lucky enough to have mushrooms with soil on them clean them with a dish cloth or a dry brush. Plenty of oil and butter is crucial, and not over-crowding the pan – this will paradoxically make the mushrooms cook more gently, releasing their juices and stewing together with the fats, making them soft on the inside and browned on the outside. They do not need to be stirred or looked after much.
This is a real joy of a dish: essential and natural, and a perfect embodiment of the elegance of autumn.
RECIPE.
Ingredients:
Serves 6.
Potatoes, 1kg
Flour, 200g
Egg yolk, 1
Mushrooms, c. 400g
Garlic, 3-6 cloves, to taste
Parmesan
Butter, olive oil
Mint, parsley
Instructions:
Place the potatoes in a pan, cover with cold water and bring to boil. Salt the water and let cook until the potatoes are soft, c. 20-25 minutes.
In the mean-time prepare your mushrooms by cleaning them with a dry dishcloth or brush, and chopping up into large chunks.
Once cooked, run the potatoes under cold water to cool, peel and place back into the pan over a medium heat for a minute to steam off some water
Pass the potatoes through a food mill or squish with a potato masher. Add the flour and combine with your hands into a soft dough. Add the egg yolk and form into compact ball.
Break off a piece of the dough, and on a floured surface roll into a 2cm wide log. With a knife cut into pieces about 1cm long, and roll each one between the palm of your hands into “strangolapreti” – long, ovalish pieces. Roll each one over the floured surface before putting aside – ideally onto a board which you can then take directly to the pan of cooking water.
Place a pot of water to boil for cooking the gnocchi.
Heat a generous amount of olive oil and butter in a pan. Crush the garlic with the back of a knife, peel and add to the pan on medium heat to colour lightly for 3-4 minutes. Then add the mushrooms, and cook for 5-6 minutes on a medium to high heat, until their water is evaporated.
Salt and pepper the mushrooms and add finely chopped parsley, mixing for another 30 seconds.
Salt the cooking water and add the gnocchi, scooping them out with a slotted spoon when they float up, and adding them to the pan with the mushrooms, which should be hot. (If you have cooked them earlier make sure they are reheated). Add some of the cooking water to the pan with the gnocchi as you go, to loosen the mushrooms and create a nice emulsion around the gnocchi. Mix the gnocchi with the mushrooms for half a minute on a low heat, adding a small pinch of Parmesan to further cream-ify the sauce and mint, and if the sauce needs further loosening then a couple more spoonfulls of the cooking water.
Plate immediately and serve with extra freshly grated Parmesan on the plate.
