Potato Gnocchi with Chicken and Marsala Wine Sauce

We had tried gnocchi on several occasions, including in Italy and supposedly in fine Italian dining establishments, however it was never light, fluffy or really that great. We decided to try a restaurant called Bravo, in Kalamazoo and give the gnocchi one more try. Once again I had been lied to, it was not good, it was deliciously and utterly amazing, love at first bite and in that very moment I made it my life’s destiny to replicate it. After many laborious tries at perfecting this recipe, I think I’ve finally done it.

Gnocchi

4 medium Idaho baking potatoes

1 whole extra large egg, beaten

1 T freshly grated parmesan cheese ( I add more instead of adding salt)

1/4 t white pepper

1/8 t fresh grated nutmeg

1 cup all purpose flour- plus more for when rolling the dough

Chicken Breast – This task, fellow novices, is to find and use your best cooking method to get juicy chicken breast.  Grill it, saute it, roast it. Then post what you found and how well it worked. We will try out your method and post the best!

Marsala Wine Sauce

3 tablespoons olive oil

1/4 cup onion, diced

1-tablespoon garlic, chopped

1/2 pound mushrooms, sliced

3 tablespoons flour

1/2 cup Marsala wine

1 1/2 cups beef stock

Heavy cream to taste (optional for the health conscious)

Salt and pepper, to taste

1. Pre-heat oven to 400 degrees. While the oven is pre-heating, prepare 4 russet potatoes with skin on by rinsing, stabbing with fork to create holes to release steam, rubbing in a bit of light tasting olive oil and sprinkling with sea salt. Bake the potatoes for about 40 minutes.  You want them to actually be a little less done then you would for a normal baked potato. Do not over bake; you do not want these to be mushy! While the potatoes are baking you can prep the ingredients needed for your chicken breast and Marsala Wine SauceJ

2. When potatoes are cool enough to handle (or using rubber kitchen gloves if you are impatient like us), cut potatoes in half with a sharp knife.  Remove the skin of the potato half and then grate each potato using a cheese grater.  Grate it directly into a large bowl.  You can also use a ricer if you have one.  We don’t.  So cheese grater it is.  Make sure no big pieces of potato fall in.

3. Now you can let the grated potatoes cool.  Take this time to cover a baking sheet with parchment paper.  You are going to put your rolled and cut gnocchi on here eventually.  Also prepare a flat, clean and spacious surface (we used a large wooden cutting board) by lightly coating it with flour.

4. Add spices, Parmesan cheese, and egg to the mixture. Gradually add the cup of flour, mixing all the ingredients by hand.  The key to mixing the dough is using a really light touch.  Really light. You want the mixture to just barley come together. Keep adding flour until you can form it into a ball. If the dough does not want to form into a ball (this has happened to us) angrily yell at the dough.  If that does not work, you can add a little bit of water to help it come together.

5. Now cut the ball into quarters with a knife.  Remove one quarter and bring it to flat, clean, flour coated surface.  Cover the remaining dough with a moist paper towel. Roll out the quarter of the dough with your hands on the floured surface.  If it is sticking to you, get a bit of the flour on your hands.  Keep on rolling until the string of dough is about roughly ¾ of an inch thick.  Then cut the string into pieces that are about one inch long.  Put all the pieces on your parchment paper covered baking sheet. 

You can do fancy things with your pieces here.  You can press them with a fork on each side to create fun ridges that also help catch the sauce.  We put enough sauce on them in the recipe (and really every recipe), that we don’t think it is necessary.  

6. Repeat the process with all of the quarters of dough. When you are out of dough, put the cookie sheet in the freezer.  Hmmm…step one probably should have been clean out your freezer so you can fit a whole cookie tray in there.  Sorry.  You’ve been meaning to clean that thing out anyway.  We’re helping you.  Sort of.

7.  Fill a medium size frying pan with about ½ inch of vegetable or other mild tasting oil.  Heat this pan on medium high heat – don’t burn it, but hot.  (This is to cook the gnocchi.  If you want, you can simply sauté them in much less oil or butter, but we like to fry things.)

8. We are going to start the Marsala wine sauce.  If you have not cooked your chicken, this is probably a good time to start it as the sauce takes about 20 minutes.  Heat up a large heavy saucepan on the stove.  When hot, add three tablespoons of olive oil.  Then add the onion, garlic, and mushroom to the pan.  Sauté until the mushrooms are tender.

9.  Add the three tablespoons of flour to the sauce. Cook for about one more minute mixing the flour around in the pan.  Deglaze with the Marsala wine (deglaze = add all the wine and make sure that you scrape all that good stuff off the bottom of the pan).  Add the beef broth and let simmer until the flavors are well blended.  You can add your cream at anytime during the process now.  We put in about two tablespoons.

10.  As soon as you are done add everything to the sauce, you can pull those gnocchi out of the freezer and start frying them.  Like everything else you fry, you want them to be a light golden brown.  Flip them and brown the other side and place them on a cooling rack or in a colander with paper towel in it.  You can cook them in batches that are about the size of the portion you want per plate. You can freeze any left over gnocchi and use them anytime!  You can just throw them in the hot oil or sauté them just like we are doing now. 

11.  Place gnocchi in a pasta bowl and pour sauce over the top.  This is about as complicated as our recipes will ever get, but totally worth it.  Enjoy! 

I am soo good.  

Music pick of the day:  Edgar Summertyme  
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TDJXSMv19oE&feature=plcp

Drink pairing: Bell's Kalamazoo Stout (we drove all the way to Iowa to get our Bell's fix.  Worth it.