Gnocchi Battle - Marcella Hazan vs. Mario Batali

I know I haven't posted in a while. I thought about quitting, but then decided against it. But if I wasn't going to quit, I had to start posting again. So here I go. I've been wanted to make gnocchi for while. I tried making it a couple of years ago and it was a disaster. Really a disaster. It turned into a sticky ugly mess. They were edible, but they were heavy and just not the pillowly potato goodness that I was trying to achieve. So this time I set out to redeem myself. I reviewed several recipes and found two very different recipes. One was by Marcella Hazan's, the grandmother of Italian cooking. Her recipe recommended Yukon Gold potato and flour. No eggs. In her introduction, she writes derisively about the use of eggs calling them "Paris style" and warning that they resulted in a tougher more rubbery product. She also warns against the use of a baking potato, suggested that it will result in a gnocchi that will collapse while cooking. The other recipe was that from the Babbo cookbook by Mario Batali. Batali specifically recommends using Russett potato, which is a baking potato. And Batali uses an egg. So unable to decide which one to make, I made both recipes.

The first was the Batali. Last time I steamed the potatoes to avoid them taking on too much water. But the Batali recipe recommends boiling them with the skin on. The dough felt light and a little bit sticky. Not the mess that it was last time. I had to work quickly in the rolling because as Daphne and I worked to roll them out, the dough started getting stickier. I boiled them for about 90 seconds and then served them with a tomato sauce. They were incredibly light. Fantastic.

The next batch were the ones from Hazan. They started out the same by boiling the potatoes. Only this time once they had been put through the ricer, I sprinkled about a cup of flour over the potato and then kneaded it into a dough. Even though it didn't have an egg the dough actually came together a little easier than the Batali recipe and was much easier to handle, but it felt a lot heavier than the Batali recipe. They took slightly longer to cook, but not much and served with the tomato sauce they were also excellent, but different. They were definitely heavier than the Batali gnocchi, a little more of a bite to them. The flavour was also slightly different. They had a more distinct potato flavour than the ones made with the Russets.

I think I preferred the Hazan recipe. Though the gnocchi weren't quite as light as the Batali recipe which yielded little potato pillows of goodness, I preferred the flavour of the Yukon Gold potatoes. But really they were both great recipes. And now I have a freezer full of gnocchi that I will be able to boil up for a dinner just any night of the week.

Comments

[Allison Adams]

Lovely, Craig! I have the Hazan cookbook so may try that recipe myself sometime.

I sautéed my pea thinnings with raisins and pine nuts a couple of weeks back--delicious!

[Julie Scott]

I've always wanted to make my own gnocchi but for some reason, I've been intimidated. You've given me the courage. I'm going to go for it! Thanks Craig!

[ell]

I'm glad you're back posting, please don't quit! I don't comment much, but I love seeing your delicious, good-enough-to-eat pictures and hearing about your dining and cooking adventures. The Vancouver wedding banquet made me wish I knew someone who was getting married (Sun Sui Wah is one of our favourites, too).