Ravioli and Gnocchi

For (fancy) pasta day #2, we made gnocchi and ravioli.

Bracha making a pesto sauce for the gnocchi:

Eugenia and Bonnie pushing potatoes through a food mill.

Using a food mill shortens the potato processing time from whole or chunked to mush. The longer potatoes are handled, the more glutenous they get. If you've ever had mashed potatoes that felt like the consistency of glue, that means that they were overworked and too much gluten was released.

Chef's gnocchi:

Adding a little more flour to bind the gnocchi dough:

Next, the dough is rolled into snakes...

And cut with a knife or bench scraper:

Then the sections are rolled down a gnocchi board. The board has ridges and gives the gnocchi some texture to hold a sauce.

The gnocchi are then placed on a tray dusted with semolina flour so they don't stick together.

Then they are dropped in boiling salted water and cooked until they float.

I used a fork to give mine texture:

This is the sauce I wanted to use, which is a combination of marinara and pareve creamer.

And here you go!

This is Sheva's gnocchi rounds with pesto:

The last thing we made was ravioli with some leftover duck that we had preserved and kept chilled since duck day.

We rolled out some ravioli dough and pushed it into the molds.

Then we filled the divots with duck and covered them with another sheet of dough. 

The last step is to cut them with a ravioli cutter:

Unfortunately, the ravioli cutters we had did not cut all the way through the dough, so we had to scrap this batch :-/  When I make ravioli again, I'll do a follow-up post.

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Potato Gnocchi
2 lbs whole baking potatoes
2 beaten egg yolks
1.5 cups flour
pinch of salt
handful chopped parsley or herbs
semolina flour

Pierce potatoes with a fork and bake at 350 degrees for an hour.
Let potatoes cool and peel the skins off.
Mash the potatoes by hand or with a ricer or food mill. Add the flour, egg yolks, and salt and mix until just combined.
Dust a flat surface with flour and:
option 1: Roll out sections of it into long snakes and cut into 1" pieces.
option 2: Lightly roll dough flat with a rolling pin and use a fondant or cookie cutter to cut shapes.
If you cut the snakes, make a thumbprint in the 1" pieces and put on a pan dusted with semolina flour.
If you cut shapes, set aside on a tray dusted with semolina flour.
At this point, you can freeze the gnocchi for later use.
Bring a pot of salted water to a boil. When boiling, drop the fresh or frozen gnocchi in the water.
When they rise to the surface, remove with a skimmer or slotted spoon.
Pour cooked gnocchi into a serving dish and top with sauce.

Enjoy!