Gnocchi with tomato sugo

This gnocchi recipe is easy to pre-make and even freezes quite well. It's great for family gatherings – I love putting a big bowl of gnocchi down in the middle of the table for everyone to share.

Gnocchi with tomato sugo. Credit: The Chef's Garden

• serves

  6

• prep

  20 minutes

• cook

  1:10 hour

• difficulty

  Mid

Ingredients

For the gnocchi

• 1 kg large floury potatoes (about 4 large potatoes), e.g. kennebecs
• 300 g sifted 00 flour
• 1 egg yolk
• 20 g salt
• 250 g rock salt

For the sauce

• 600 g very ripe Santorini tomatoes, sliced into pieces
• 2 cloves garlic
• 130 ml olive oil
• 1 cup basil leaves
• Salt and pepper
• 150 ml good quality passata
• 100 g grated parmigiano

Instructions

1. To prepare the gnocchi, preheat oven to 180°C.
2. Place rock salt on a tray and place potatoes on the salt and bake until soft. This may take up to 50 minutes or an hour. Slice the potatoes in half, and once cool enough to handle use a spoon to scoop out the inside of the potatoes.
3. Use a potato ricer and push all of the potato through. Place your riced potato on a work bench dusted with flour, then add salt and egg yolk. Add half the flour and start mixing with a fork until it starts to combine.
4. Slowly start adding the rest of the flour as needed until you have a smooth dough. Knead as briefly as you can to create your dough being careful not to over-work the dough which results in golf balls.
5. Break off a chunk of dough and with your fingers roll the dough into a tube. How thick your tube is will determine how large your gnocchi turn out. Don’t make it too big.
6. For the sauce, place 100 ml olive oil in a sauté pan, add garlic cloves and cook gently until they start to colour. Remove and discard (keep the garlic for something else).
7. Add the tomatoes and cook for about 10 minutes until they start to break down. After 5 minutes add the passata and continue cooking.
8. Cook gnocchi in a pot of salted boiling water. As they begin to float to the top, remove with a slotted spoon and add to the tomatoes.
9. At this point, add 100 ml of the pasta water and cook the sauce down. Once reduced and coating the gnocchi, remove from the heat, and add the basil, seasoning and Parmigiano. Add the remaining olive oil and mix very well. This will create a creaminess to the sauce.
10. Plate up the gnocchi and drizzle more olive oil on top.

Cook's Notes

Oven temperatures are for conventional; if using fan-forced (convection), reduce the temperature by 20˚C. | We use Australian tablespoons and cups: 1 teaspoon equals 5 ml; 1 tablespoon equals 20 ml; 1 cup equals 250 ml. | All herbs are fresh (unless specified) and cups are lightly packed. | All vegetables are medium size and peeled, unless specified. | All eggs are 55-60 g, unless specified.