I usually buy about 2 lbs potatoes for 1 recipe of gnocchi. Since we're substituting some ricotta for 1 potato it's easiest to weigh out 2 lbs potatoes at the store then remove one.
First make the sauce. While that's cooking, make the gnocchi.
Ingredients for the Sauce:
2 T olive oil
1 carrot
1 stalk celery
1/2 large onion
4 oz fresh mushrooms
2 cloves garlic
1/4 c wine
10 leaves fresh basil
1 bay leaf
1 T parsley, dried, or more, fresh
1 t thyme, dried, or more, fresh
1 lb ground beef
1 28 oz can tomatoes
salt & pepper to taste
In a large saucepan, heat olive oil on M/H. Finely shop carrot, celery, onion & add to pan. Mince garlic & add. Chop the mushrooms and add those after a few minutes. When the onions are getting clear, pour in the wine and stir for 20 seconds, until the alcohol has boiled off. Add ground beef, breaking into small pieces as you go. Season with salt & pepper. After a few minutes, pour in your tomatoes & herbs, lower heat--I put mine on as low as it would go--and simmer for 1 hr, stirring occasionally.
Ingredients for the Gnocchi:
7 oz ricotta (about 1/2 a 15 oz container. If you want to substitute for 2 potatoes, use the whole container)
3 large baking potatoes (or about 1 1/2-1 3/4 lbs)
1 egg
1/2 t salt
flour
Wash the potatoes & boil them whole in salted water. Do not cut them, otherwise they become waterlogged and the gnocchi will not be light and fluffy. Make sure they cook all the way through and a fork goes in easily.
Drain the potatoes and peel when easy to handle (I'm usually impatient and do this right away, despite burning my fingers a bit). Push each potato through a ricer into a large bowl. If you don't have a ricer, you can also use a regular potato masher, but you won't get the same amount of airiness in your dough. Try to remove as many lumps as possible, if using the masher. Cover the potatoes with a towel and set aside to cool.
Once the potatoes are cool enough that cracking an egg into them won't cook the egg, go ahead and add the egg to the bowl. (I remember this always confused me when I was a kid: "Potatoes cooking an egg, I don't understand!"). Sprinkle in the 1/2 t salt, and add in the ricotta. With a fork, mix everything together, being careful not to smash the potatoes too much; we're not making mashed potatoes, we're trying to keep it the consistency of a light dough.
Once the ricotta and potatoes are evenly distributed, begin sprinkling flour over the mixture, while still mixing with the fork. It will get harder to mix as you add more flour. Stop adding flour when the mixture has formed a dough and it is only slightly sticky to the touch. (If in doubt, err on the side of adding too little flour, than adding too much.)
Gather the dough into a ball, and dump onto a floured working surface. Knead until the stickiness is gone and the dough is workable, adding flour as needed. This only takes about a minute. Roll into a log, then slice into thick 1'' slices. Sprinkle more flour on your work surface, then roll each slice into a long snake, about 1/2'' in diameter. Cut each snake into 3/4'' angled pieces and roll in extra flour, before placing on a floured baking pan. Do this for each of the slices of dough, until all of them are cut into gnocchi, floured, and on the pan. Boil water and cook the same day.
When cooking gnocchi, use a wide-brimmed pot and only place enough in to cover the bottom layer. They will cook in about 1-2 minutes. Stir them around, as they might stick to the bottom. As soon as they float to the top of the water, fish them out using a large strainer or slotted spoon.
When I finished making the gnocchi, my sauce had about 15 minutes left to cook. I set a pot of water to boil, and when the timer for the sauce was done, my gnocchi were just done cooking. I couldn't have asked for better timing!
Next time I think I'll either cut the meat in half or double the tomatoes and veggies, to make the sauce more "saucey", but as of now I'm satisfied because I was craving something really meaty tonight and that's exactly what I got.
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