Gnocchi with Microwaved Potatoes

We love gnocchi, the wonderful dumpling-like pasta. There's usually a pack of store-bought ones in the house but they can be a bit heavy or gummy. It's a simple food with just potato, flour, and frequently a little egg to bind, and we've made them before. I wanted to make light ones without heating up our kitchen too much. This is fairly quick and came out quite well.

Gnocchi with Irene's pesto which had preserved lemon and foraged wild fennel

To make light gnocchi, we need to minimize the flour; to reduce the amount of flour, we need our potatoes to be as dry as possible. First, choose a potato that's dry and starchy, not waxy. Many recipes recommend baking them (on salt, or elevated) to dry them out, rather than boiling them. Our Barcelona summers are hot, so I didn't want to run my oven on high for over an hour. One of my posts said that my best version used a microwaved potato:

the best gnocchi I ever made was after a night of carousing: when I came home, more than a little tipsy and famished, I riced a microwaved potato, added an egg and just the right amount of flour to make the lightest, most silky gnocchi we've had at home -- sadly, I've never been able to repeat that level of excellence

I've now been able to recreate this excellent texture, again using the microwave. It dries out the potato similar to baking, and we then proceed as usual, trying to release even more moisture. 

Many recipes use a whole egg for 1000 g of Potato, some suggest two yolks to avoid the excess moisture of the whites (which make up 65% of an egg). Most use 1/4 the weight of Flour as the Potatoes, so we'll start there. 

1000 g  Potato (dry, starchy, not waxy: Russet, Idaho, Maris Piper)

 250 g  Flour (preferably 00 but AP is OK)

  50 g  Egg (one egg, or two yolks)

   5 g  Salt

The potatoes I got at the market weighed 780 g, which was enough for two dinners for the two of us (four servings). Scaling the recipe:

780 g  Potatoes

185 g  Flour (I ended up using only 100 g)

  2    Egg Yolks

  5 g  Salt (more to boil)

Wash the Potatoes and pierce them with a fork. Microwave about 15 minutes until cooked through (check with a knife), flipping them once.

Cut the Potatoes in half to allow the steam to escape; hold with a fork, and remove the skin.

Use a potato ricer to "rice" them onto a clean counter.
Drizzle with the Egg Yolks, Salt, and top with a good spoonful of the Flour; we'll add more later

We want to combine these and add just enough Flour over time so the dough isn't sticky. Avoid kneading which will develop gluten and toughness. You can use a pastry cutter or bench scraper to do most of this before using your hands; don't use a potato masher. I didn't have a ricer nor a bench scraper, so I used the side of a metal spatula to cut in and mince the Potato, and it came out successfully but it took a while. 

Dust and cut-in Flour, occasionally shaping with your hands, until it's not too sticky, just a little tacky.
Roll into a log, dust with Flour, and let rest a few minutes to hydrate.

Cut into 4 pieces.
For each piece, roll into a 2cm diameter snake, then cut into 2cm lengths.
Roll each pillow over a grooved gnocchi board of the back of a fork (or spatula) to create grooves to catch the sauce;
collect them on a kitchen towel while you do the rest.

I used a metal spatula to cut in the Flour and form the grooves

(We had twice as much as needed so I transferred half to a cloth-lined plate and froze them, then bagged them for use later; we can boil them directly from frozen.)

Bring water to a boil and add some Salt.
Add the Gnocchi and boil gently until they rise to the top, just a couple minutes.
Fish out with a strainer and add to a pan of sauce: for this one, we used Irene's pesto.
Serve immediately, garnish with grated Parmesan.