There are some days when you have to decide not to do anything, I mean nothing more than your day at work. London’s effervescence can make you feel dizzy so we have to be strong and say stop sometimes.

No friend to see, no dance class, no jogging, no photoshoot, nothing!

Or maybe just a few gnocchi ?…

I passed by my little shop around the corner to buy potatoes and a fresh basil pot (which now decorate my little kitchen’s window in my new kitchen) and I went home to cook.

I thought about those gnocchi all day long… It was like an obsession…

Nice was Italian 200 years ago, that’s why people from Nice all have a family name which end up by ‘O’ or ‘I’.

My family didn’t make the exception, and I have been raised with garlic, olive oil and home-made gnocchi.

Gnocchi means Italy, South of France, sun, sea… It is not the case at all in London this summer, the weather is just disgusting, even English people find it awful ! I am not going to start moaning as it doesn’t change anything, but honestly this summer is tuff and I can’t wait to go back to my roots at the end of the month. For now, we can still make gnocchi.

It’s difficult to estimate how many gnocchi you can make with 1kg of potatoes, I bought 800g and I have around ten dozen of gnocchi. 2 dozen per person is the average for average eaters. Gnocchi can be frozen raw, on a tray first for them not to be stuck all together, then in a plastic container.

 

Ingredients :

– 1kg of new potatoes (the little purple ones are the best)

– 300g flour

– 1 egg

– 1 Tbsp of olive oil (optional but better)

Method :

Put the potatoes in cold and salted water with the skin and bring to the boil. When they are ready and while still warm, peel and mash them, add the egg, olive oil and the flour slowly by slowly. If 300g of flour is not enough add a bit more till the ‘dough’ doesn’t stick on your fingers anymore.

Take little pieces of the dough and roll each of them as a little sausage. Cut the ‘sausages’ into little pieces of 2cm each. You can either cook them like that or as I used to do with my mum when I was a child, shape them by placing them one by one on the tines of a fork, cut ends out. Roll each gnocchi with your thumb, press in and down the length of the fork.

Bring some salted water into the boil and plunge the gnocchi in it. They are ready when they are coming up to the surface.

There are different ways to make gnocchi, some chef place the boiled potatoes in the oven to dry them before adding the flour, or pass the potatoes through a sieve a few times to get rid of the water.

This recipe is the one I have always done with my mum. No fuss, not complicated, just pure pleasure… With tomato sauce, cream or Gorgonzola cheese sauce… Enjoy !