Potato Gnocchi With Butter And Parmesan

Ingredients (serves 4)

2 large baking potatoes

1 medium sized Yukon gold potato

1 egg yolk

2 1/2 c pastry or cake flour

A bench scraper or large metal spatula

Salt and pepper

3 oz butter

1/2 c chicken stock (reduced to about 3 Tbsp)

1/2 c grated Parmesan cheese

Directions

Begin by baking all three potatoes at 350 degrees for 70 minutes or until they are soft and fully cooked. While they are baking, set up a large pot of boiling salted water. You will need the water to be hot when you finish the gnocchi.

While the potatoes bake, gather and prepare your other ingredients. When the potatoes are almost fully cooked, make your butter sauce by reducing the chicken stock in a small sauce pot.

Once it is reduced, turn the heat to low and stir in cold cubes of butter until you have a nice sauce. Add salt and pepper.

When the potatoes come out of the oven, let them rest only until you are able to handle them, about 10 minutes. While they rest, dust a large work space with some of the flour.

Cut the potatoes open, scoop out the flesh with a spoon, and mill them through a potato ricer or food mill right onto the floured work space.

Drizzle the egg yolk over the top of the warm potato and follow with a heavy handful of the flour. Begin to cut or gently chop the ingredients together, being sure not to work too fast or aggressively. You do not want to overwork the ingredients.

When the moisture of the potatoes absorbs the flour, dust on a lighter sprinkle and fold the forming dough ball in on top of itself from all four sides, pressing it all together. Repeat this process until you have a dough that is workable but not too dense (you may or may not need all the flour).

Form the dough ball into a log shape. With the bench scraper, cut off a third of the dough and roll it out by spreading your fingers apart and gently rolling out a tube about as thick as a thumb.

Cut them into one-inch sections and immediately dunk into the boiling salted water. When they float, cook them for another minute. Scoop them out with a slotted spoon and dunk them right into the warm butter sauce. Cook in the warm butter sauce over medium low heat for three minutes. Finish with the grated Parmesan cheese and fresh cracked black pepper.