A recipe made to embrace the winter with friends
There’s something deeply comforting about potato gnocchi, served with a rich sauce, bubbling away on the stove. A moment of warmth.
My first attempts at homemade gnocchi were… well… awful. Too dense and soggy. There are just four ingredients, but we weren’t best friends for a long time. Until I learned it’s all about the eggs. The trick? Use only the egg yolk. It binds the dough together without the chewiness of the whole egg.
This easy, homemade gnocchi recipe comes together with simple, honest ingredients and is a Tuscan vegetarian dish. Made following the same principles as a meat ragù, just without the meat. A truly delicious winter recipe for everyone.
What you need
Gnocchi
✦ 450 g potatoes
✦ 1 egg yolk
✦ 85 g Tipo 00 flour, plus a little extra
✦ Pinch of salt
It’s best to use a potato ricer, but gently mashing the potatoes with a fork works pretty well too.
Sugo
✦ 2 sticks of celery
✦ 1 medium onion
✦ 2 carrots
✦ 1 or 2 garlic cloves
✦ 20 g fresh parsley
✦ 6 sun-dried tomatoes
✦ 1 bay leave
✦ 1,5 tablespoon tomato paste
✦ 1 can of peeled tomatoes
✦ A good splash of Chianti
✦ About 250 ml vegetable stock
✦ Olive oil (EVOO)
That’s more than enough for 4 people.
How you make it
✦ Start with the gnocchi. Boil the potatoes (skin on) until tender, about 20–25 minutes.
✦ Drain the potatoes and dry them thoroughly. Don’t skip this! Moisture and gnocchi do not get along, so dry them well. Once cool enough to handle, peel the potatoes and place them in a large, wide bowl.
✦ Form a “well” in the center and add the egg yolk with a pinch of salt. Whisk with a fork and gradually incorporate the flour until the dough start to stick together.
✦ Gather the dough into one big ball and gently knead it by hand. No need to overwork it. Cover the dough and let it rest for about 15 minutes while you make the sugo.
✦ Dice the onion, carrots, and celery. Also chop the parsley, garlic and sun-dried tomatoes.
✦ Heat olive oil in a large pan and cook the carrot, celery, onion, and bay leaf slowly until soft and translucent. Then add parsley, garlic, sun-dried tomatoes, and tomato paste to the pan and let everything cook well for a couple of minutes.
✦ Pour in the Chianti and let it bubble until the alcohol cooked off. Reduce the heat to low, add the peeled tomatoes and the vegetable stock and stirr them in. Cover the pan and allow the sauce to simmer for 30 minutes.
✦ Return to the gnocchi, divide the dough into 4 equal pieces. Roll each into a 25 cm log, and cut about 20 small gnocchi per log. Use small pieces to create little pillows. Dust them lightly with flour to prevent sticking.
✦ To make sure the sauce clings beautifully, use a fork to create ridges in the gnocchi.
✦ Once the sauce is ready to go, boil a large pot of salted water to cook the gnocchi. Gnocchi cook in about 1 minute.
✦ Once cooked, transfer them into the sugo finto and stirr it well. Turn off the heat, drizzle with extra virgin olive oil and serve immediately.
The art of nourishment
Feel free to do it your way
We all learn cooking in our own way. From our mothers, our grandfathers, a holiday abroad or an accident at home. These moments shape your taste, and your taste shapes your style. But neither is fixed; they move with the rhythm of your life.
So a meal is never just a meal. It’s a memory.
A here-and-now moment. Your moment.
Don’t treat recipes (mine or anyone else’s) as strict rules. Think of them as gentle directions, little suggestions along the way. And it’s entirely yours. So play with food. Dance in your kitchen. Trust your senses. Because nobody tastes what you taste.
And if it doesn’t turn out perfect? Congratulations, you’ve just cooked like a human being.
Buon appetito!
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