Dear Reader, I was up until this year, a complete gnocchi failure. I had tried at least a dozen times to master gnocchi and ended up with lumpy, heavy, starchy bullets. In fact, I think that’s what one of my ex boyfriend’s called them (and no, that’s not why he was an ex 
). I hurtled from making pumpkin gnocchi which was an unmitigated, sloppy mess to gnocchi made with instant mashed potato no less. You see a chef had told me that to make good gnocchi you needed the potato to be very dry. He made his with Deb instant mashed potato powder.
I was so excited about the idea of mastering gnocchi that I went to buy some instant mash and made it immediately. It was possibly the worst batch of gnocchi I had made. But enter Francesca. She is the mother of Tony Sabia of Puntino Trattoria in Darlinghurst. Every Wednesday morning, passersby see Francesca working away in the window from 5am until midday making pasta for the restaurant.
Francesca’s hand made pasta
Their specialties are the gnocchi and “ferrietti con la mollica” a pasta made with a wire that must be rolled individually taking about two hours to work on two kilos of flour. Francesca’s recipes are handed down from her grandmother and the family comes from the Basalicata region in Potenza province in a town called Viggianello, an ancient village of just over 3,000 inhabitants.
The gnocchi however, was a cinch and Francesca was going to be kind enough to show me how to make it. Francesca was softly spoken and warm and her eyes sparkled when we started to make the pasta. Her gnocchi was light, silky and simple to make with only two ingredients: potato and flour.
Use a fine 00 Italian flour. The key to gnocchi is to not allow the potato to take in too much flour which can weigh it down so ensure that the potato is completely cool by the time you add the flour which is in fact the thing that takes the longest. After that, it’s really a matter of rolling, cutting and cooking the gnocchi. For the final step of rolling them, Francesca uses a special flour from Weston’s Milling called Continental Sharps (sometimes called Continental Flour) which is coarse in texture, between an all purpose flour and a fine semolina.
As I sunk my teeth into the sublime pillows of gnocchi, I felt relief and joy that I was no longer a gnocchi failure. And now I pass on Francesca’s foolproof perfect gnocchi recipe so that you can avoid potato bullets or grenades (don’t ask, one time they really were large grenades ).
So tell me Dear Reader, is there an item that you have been unable to make? And have you ever tried making gnocchi?
Ciao Francesca!
Perfect Gnocchi
Francesca’s top tips for gnocchi:
- Use a starchy potato like desiree potatoes
- Boil potatoes in their skins
- Use a potato ricer to mash them (do not use a food processor)
- You don’t need egg, only potato and flour
- Cook gnocchi once they are shaped-because you don’t want to add too much flour
- 1 kilo desiree potatoes
- 350g Italian 00 flour plus extra for the board
- Your favourite sauce to serve it with (pesto, simple tomato, browned butter & sage, whatever takes your fancy)
- You will also need a knife or pastry cutter and a ridged gnocchi board or fork
1. Boil the potatoes in their skins until soft. While the potatoes are still hot, take a potato ricer and push the whole potatoes through it making mashed potato. Discard the skins. Allow to cool completely – you can spread the mashed potato out onto a clean surface to facilitate cooling.
Adding the flour
Kneading the mixture
Until you get a dough
2. Put a very large pot of water onto boil as you want to cook the gnocchi straight away. Add the flour to the potato mixture and mix together until you get a cohesive dough. Take the dough and pinch off handfuls and roll it out into a log shape. If this is long, cut it in half or you can line up several logs together (making sure to flour them lightly on the outside so that they don’t stick.
Cutting the gnocchi into small pieces
3. Cut them into small pieces. Using the gnocchi board, roll the pieces onto the ridged gnocchi board to get the gnocchi pattern. You can be quite firm with them and “flick” them off the board. You actually flatten them on the board and they curl around so that they aren’t completely solid and have a cavity in the back of the ridge (see image below). They look a little like ears! If you use a fork, simply press the fork tines gently into the gnocchi pillows.
Top: pressing down firmly on the board; middle flipping the pieces; bottom, Francesca’s advanced moves using a fork on her thumb!
4. Start to heat your sauce in a separate pan. Place the gnocchi in the boiling water and they’re done once they float to the surface. Remove with a slotted spoon and place in the sauce and bathe the gnocchi in sauce and serve immediately. You can also place the cooked gnocchi in a lightly oiled baking dish and toss so that they don’t stick together.
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77 Comments | Add your own
Lorraine the best person to learn how to make any pasta is always an Italian mama…I can see you’ve learnt from the very best!
My sister made gnocchi once, she got tired of rolling and made then into tennis ball sized rolls…needless to say, it was a heavy plate.
They look perfect and must taste really good! I wish I would know where to buy such a board…
Cheers,
Rosa
I love gnocchi and I’ve always wanted to make my own… now I know just where to start
.
hehe instant mash
well they do now look perfect, and i’m inspired to make gnocchi this week
I use the same recipe for my gnocchi without an egg and they always come out lovely. I’ve also made gnocchi with yogurt cheese and ricotta cheese with similar results. We started making gnocchi years ago, even JT has mastered the art. I have the same gnocchi paddle (I bought mine in Venice, Italy). Our favourite gnocchi is with a gorgonzola sauce.
I have never tried to make gnocchi, but if I do, I will remember this recipe.
Oh my goodness! I’ve never made it before and it’s on my cooking bucket list for this year. I’ve been looking for the perfect gnocchi recipe for a while now, and this looks like it is it! I can’t wait to try this out. Thank you and Francesca for sharing this recipe!
Francesca’s pasta looks beautiful, I remember making pupmkin gnocchi as well which was less than a success
This recipe is a keeper.
Oh I love this recipe!! I have made gnocchi and while it wasn’t a dismal failure I feel I could have done better, I will be looking forward to trying this recipe!!
Brandy Snaps are my current nemesis!!! :/
What a fun morning you had! Gnocchi look great!
Thank you for this awesome tutorial for gnocchi…reminds me of watching my grandmother make it when I was a child!
I made potato gnocchi once and it was a failure. I now only make semolina gnocchi from the old W/Weekly Italian
cookbook,never fails!!!
I’m a gnocchi failure too. I once tried to make it as a special birthday dinner for Carl. I had no idea how long the process would take especially as I overlooked the fact the tomato sugo needed to simmer for two hours. I don’t think we ate until about 9.30pm and I deemed the experience a failure. I didn’t know the potato should be cold before adding the flour! xx
Wonderful recipe! I too have had some rather dismal gnocchi results but my greatest failure are scones. Mine look more like Sao biscuits. I have just bought a house with a wonderful piece of marble set into the kitchen benchtop. The former owner said she installed it there for her scones. I just smiled and tried to look like I too am a great scone maker.
Hi Dianne! I have a scone recipe here from the Tea Room: http://www.notquitenigella.com/2010/07/27/the-tea-rooms-fabulous-scone-recipe/ I wonder if that might work?
I’m still yet to make gnocchi but I really do love it. I will have to give this a go.
Fantastic! I’ll be trying this for sure.
We don’t make potato gnocchi at home as our few attempts have never been a huge success, but I do have the good fortune of being married to the best Spinach & Ricotta gnocchi maker in the world…
He was inspired to try his hand after seeing Lorenza DeMedici on a cooking show waaay back in 1991, and found that he has the perfect touch. Light, fluffy and deliciously perfect gnocchi…love it!
Its a good feeling to master the mystery of something you have been trying for a long time. What a great lesson. Great pictures and I’d like some please
This is a fantastic tutorial. I have made gnocchi in the past because I am a fiend for it. It was about five years ago when I saw Maggie Beer make it on The Cook and the Chef. It did turn out nicely, although quite ugly (but so was Maggie’s
). What I found was that it took me so long from beginning to end that I completely lost interest in eating it by the end.
I think with you help here, I will give it another go. My skills, my equipment and my kitchen are all much improved since then. Great post
This makes it look so easy. Yum. I have made spinach gnocchi, but never potato. Would like to, though. Turducken or a gallantine–never made either of those.
I’ve always been able to make gnocchi, to be honest I’ve never put much thought into it. It’s something my mother always made so I grew up with seeing how it was done. It was different to this though. I think I’d be keen to try it this way.
Hi Lorraine, I enjoyed this post soooo much, because I love gnocchi. Now if only Francesca want to have pasta making class for the rest of us, it will be amazing
Another gnocchi failure here. I still don’t know if mine would come out light and fluffy, I don’t think I am patient enough!
Hi Lorraine, thanks for sharing this recipe. I learnt making gnocchi once from a chef but he didnt give me the ingredients, but I will try this one day.
Looks wonderful, will definitely try this! Just curious, do you also put the skin through the potato ricer? Or do you pull off once boiled?
Hi Megs! Sorry I should have been clearer-you discard the skins
I’ll amend the recipe to say that!
The recipe looks great and super easy (I’ve had gnocchi disasters before!) but I’m confused about which flour to use. You say to use “a coarse 00 Italian flour” but I thought 00 flour was a very fine flour, finer even than standard plain flour. Francesca also uses continental flour when rolling the gnocchi (definitely a coarser flour) but this isn’t included in the list of ingredients. Can you please clarify? Thanks so much.
Yeah I’m a gnocchi failure too. My husband politely asked me not to make it again. Might have to break that rule and try this recipe though
Hi Tania! Sorry I got confused with the two flours and will take out the word coarse as 00 is a fine flour. Re the continental flour, I didn’t actually get a hold of the continental sharps flour as they only sell it in 10 kilo bags commercially but it’s just there in the notes if you can get a hold of it. I made it with regular 00 flour and it still worked well.
Thank you Lorraine I will attempt Gnocchi again. My list of failures includes Macaroons and sourdough
I giggled as soon as I saw the header for this article. I too have shameful a Gnocchi past and doubt I’ll ever be allowed to attempt it in my household again.
I have tried the gnocchi in gorganzola sauce at Puntino and it was amazing. thank you for sharing the secret!
Great, thanks so much, all clear on the flour front now. Luckily I have some continental flour that my grandma gave me from her 10kg bag!
HI Tania! How very lucky, that’s great that you have that flour. I’m hoping that they release it in smaller batches one day
i only discovered how easy it was to make gnocchi from scratch this year too, delicious little morsels aren’t they?
I love you so much right now! I too am a completely gnocchi failure and my beautiful Mia LOVES gnocchi. She’s gonna love her mamma even more now…. xox
Thanks Tania! I might make this for my mum for Mother’s Day
Nothing like learning first hand from an Italian, TRUE!
HOW to make the best gnocchi made with TLC too!
The Executive Chef at Harrigan’s while we both cooked outdoors at a demo at the Hunter Valley Gardens taught me!
Is there an item that I have been unable to make? There are LOTS waiting “on the list” so we will just have to wait and see!
Now that’s a lesson!!
Just put a photo on Instagram with my results. The first batch overlooked as the water was very foamy and I didn’t see them but next batches worked very well. This recipe is a keeper, and I like the idea of a Gorgonzola sauce as mentioned above.
Hi A! Your feed is private but I saw the little thumbnail and they looked great! I’m so glad that you liked the recipe. I’ve made it so many times now and Mr NQN is crazy for it
I can’t for the life of me make meringues. 2 ingredients and I just can’t do it! It’s driving me mental!!!
funny how the simplest things are the hardest to make isn’t it? I often make gnocchi but never make the ridges…
Hi Lorraine!
I have been too scared to even attempt to make gnocchi but your detailed explanation gives me courage! I’m also too scared (yet) to attempt to temper my own chocolate but would desperately love to do so!
I must ask…is your book still coming out in April? I have been counting down the days! And can we preorder it? I can’t wait!!!
How nice to find a Nonna Lorraine, you should always learn from the best! It does look tasty indeed, my girls both love gnocchi pesto and as my garden is full of basil I should knock up a batch- yummo.
I had trouble for years making good pork crackle. I tried blanching, painting with glucose mixtures…. everything was pointless until I just gave up one day and stopped trying so hard. It turns out the secret is air drying and salt, just salt, and it’s now perfect every time
I’m another victim of repeat Gnochi failure who had just about given up. You give me hope! Will give this yummy looking recipe a whirl
I am definitely keen to try more gnocchi
I’ve only ever eaten it once!
My one attempt at gnocchi was so abysmal (stodgy, starchy and totally inedible) I never tried it again, but I will definitely give this recipe a go.
Ayeeeeeeeeee, the first pic is so cute!
I’ve only recently started to really love gnocchi and while I don’t think I have the patience to make my own just yet, I know that the time will one day come (that is, for me to make my own) and I will be rewarded
Amazing! I love eating gnocchi! I attempted making it once and it was horrifying. Your pictures are do beautiful! Makes me want to try again almost.
Great post Lorraine. I love gnocchi and have a great recipe for ricotta gnocchi, I have trouble getting them looking pretty but they taste great and are frequently requested by my fussy 7 year old!!
My cooking nemesis is chocolate fudge! I am just about to check your recipe index and see if you have a foolproof recipe for me!
Hi Jodie! I love ricotta gnocchi too and they’re so light and delicious
I do have one (and I’ve had exactly the same problems as you with fudge in the past). The recipe is here: http://www.notquitenigella.com/2011/12/21/eggnog-fudge/ and you can replace the white chocolate with milk or dark chocolate. I hope that helps! 
Yay, finally someone that makes Gnocchi the correct way using only potatoes and flour ! My mum makes them exactly this way, the only difference is the way she rolls them . Instead of a fork or paddle mum uses her thumb to make an indentation and then rolls them off. There’s nothing better than a plate of pillowy gnocchi with a beautiful sauce. I love mine with Bolognaise but even a simple tomato & basil is delicious. It’s been a while since I’ve made them, might make up a big platter of them for our Easter Sunday lunch. Mmmmm, can taste them already !
Croissants are my failure , I will attempt to have another go come the cooler weather.
Looks so good! Now find me a pumpkin gnocchi recipe
Haha, you can’t suggest it and not deliver 
Yes I have made it and was so excited at how easy it was!
Hi Lorraine!
These Gnocchi look delicious!
And I’m definitely going to look for 00 flour.
I’ve never seen it around here.
Eva:
Would love to have your recipe for the yoghurt and ricotta cheese Gnocchi.
I so feel your pain. I didn’t make them for 20 years after the first time. They were death balls and inedible! I found my gnocchi legs with a recipe using ricotta. They were light as air. Once the terror of gnocchi had been conquered, I’ve made lots of varieties and now they’re all good. Your recs are perfect and love your teacher!!
I have never tried to make gnocci, but you’ve inspired me to try! My next thing to attempt (after the gnocci) is homemade mozzarella….
I’ve always said that I don’t like gnocchi, but perhaps I’ve just had bad gnocchi and to be honest the texture was so odd I’ve only tried it once. But now I might make my own, I just have to develop the squashing and flicking motion – where do I get a gnocchi board? GG
It is wonderful that you had a lesson from such an expert…I’m sure yours turned out excellent. I have only made gnocchi once from leftover mashed potatoes and they were light as a feather.
Good on you my friend, your gnocchi looks divine
Cheers
Choc Chip Uru
i’ve never tried to make gnocchi, though i can see how it would be a challenging endeavor! good on you, lorraine!
I tried once, epic failure. Along with jelly slice and boiled eggs.
I can cook anything but. Will try this recipe and hopefully I can remove it from the list of my failures.
I made gnocchi for the first time with sweet potato – it was perfect! Thankfully so much easier than I anticipated. How lucky for you to get a hands on lesson from a real Nonna!
Love Puntino, the mozzarella degustation plate is deliciouso!
I’ve never made gnocchi before but now I’m excited to try!
Don’t laugh — but I suck at poaching eggs.
Hehe When I was about 12 i made gnocchi for my parents lunch. I accidentally used self raising flour and we ended up with oversized gnocchi. Mum and Dad were kind enough to say it was delicious….
This is my nemesis as well! I’m going to try a few combined recipes as I’m learning hints everywhere
I was that way about macarons until Jill Colonna sorted me out. I haven’t made gnocchi for a while but these photos make me want some for dinner. Now where is my gnocchi board??
Gnocchi….so good and easy too when made correctly and yes my sister and I have been making them since we were very young and loved to help our Mother preparing the gnocchi for our Sunday lunch. Now our children have also become adept at making them and roll them off the fork with ease. I am aghast and rendered speechless that anyone could even think to make them with instant potato, I am so pleased Lorraine you have been taught by the best….an Italian Mamma who knows the traditional way and the best way of course. As for things I can’t make but am determined to learn….there are many I am afraid and I am sure there will be some I will never do well.
I tried making gnocchi once for my dad’s birthday and it failed terribly
been too afraid to try again. It was heavy and just inedible. Might give this recipe a go when I work up the courage to!
Thank you Francesca and NQN for this recipe! Gnocchi and me have only been restaurateur friends and not friends in my kitchen. Until now!
I haven’t made gnocchi for ages – more because it takes ages than that I was unhappy with the texture but I have a feeling I have quite a bit of room for improvement – and next time I made it I will be back to this post for advice
This is so cool! You learned from the best teacher. I see a lot of people trying gnocchi and now you make perfect gnocchi, I’m very tempted to try with my kids one of these days!
Its hard to believe that something made of only two simple ingredients could be so difficult to perfect. Looks like you have a killer combo now ready for perfect homemade gnocchi!
Brava! I remember making my first batch of pumpkin gnocchi after watching a friend do it with great ease and them being a real failure. Since then I have mastered those, but believe it or not never made potato gnocchi, maybe because I am not a fan. I love them when they are light and fluffy, but often they are dry and clumpy.
I need to try this! The best gnocchi I have ad was at Puntino recently! Made me want to get my skills up to scratch
Hi loved the recipe and inspired to do it at home, I am a vegetarian can I make it in the evening and reheat for dinner, as our eating times are different.
I have made gnocchi before but I know what you mean by “bullets”. I kept mine in that little pillow shape – but I much prefer Francesca’s method of making them into little ears! Thats awesome, i will try that
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