Serves: 4 30 minutes
Scrub the potatoes and wash. Peel and halve them. Cook the halved potatoes in lots of boiling salted water for about 12 minutes or till done. Drain and Mash the potatoes well. Heat the olive oil pan and fry the mushrooms and chives for about 3 minutes. Mix this into the mashed potatoes along with half the butter, salt and pepper. Add the plain flour gradually and keep kneading with a grased hand adding more flour if required till the dough is no longer sticky. Make walnut sized balls of the dough and cook in a large pot of boiling salted water for about 5 minutes or till the balls rise to the surface. Remove with a slotted spoon. Cook the gnocchi in batches if necessary. ( An optional step) Arrange the gnocchi in a greased oven tray. Sprinkle the grated parmesan cheese on top and dot with the remaining butter. Bake in a preheated oven at at 200o C or 400o F for about 10 minutes or till the cheese is browned. TIPS:
New potatoes or baking potatoes are not suited to make gnocchi. Use mealy boiling potatoes for best results. If the dough gets too sticky to shape into balls, transfer to a piping bag and pipe small cylinders of the dough (cutting the dough with a knife as you pipe to form small cylinders) into hot boiling salted water and cook. The cooked gnocchi can be served with a sauce of your choice even with out baking. Alternatively, the gnocchi can be baked with a sauce of your choice topped with cheese. Serve hot with: Almond butter sauce.
