Gnocchi with Pesto From Scratch

I'm taking this whole made from scratch thing to a new level! I made gnocchi from scratch. It was intimidating to read about the disaster stories online... but I think in the end, it would probably one of the best Italian dish I've made, yet. (Of course.. I don't really make Italian food often haha... I'm straying away from baking right now for a bit... I want to be well-rounded in the kitchen... as in being good at cooking AND baking!..... because it kind of looks like I can only bake...which is kind of true... : / )
The potato pillows were light, fluffy, and had a good bite to it. It didn't take too long to make. I had to whip out one of my books to see how to make those ridges so I re-did about 1/3 of the batch. I did this WITHOUT a ricer. I was seriously considering buying a ricer just for this, but found an awesome recipe where this person used a grater. I don't think I could tell the difference between this gnocchi and the gnocchi I had in Postrio in Las Vegas... cool. One thing I did forget to do was season my gnocchi, I guess I made it incredibly basic. The sauce was the pesto I made a few days ago paired with a little bit of Parmesan cheese... simple, yet so tasty.


Fresh Gnocchi

1 lb russet potatoes, cut into 1/3 pound chunks, peeled and placed in a microwave safe dish covered with plastic wrap and steamed for 10 minutes
1 egg
2 cups flour, or more if it gets sticky
Seasoning to taste (salt, pepper, herbs, cheese, etc.)

1. Remove potatoes from microwave and let stand for 5 minutes. Use a box grater and grate the potatoes using the largest hole. (The potatoes are still really hot.. so be careful!)
2. In a large bowl, beat an egg until scrambled. Add in 1.5 cups of flour. Dump in the potatoes.
3. Use your hands to knead the mixture to form a soft dough. Add flour if needed. Only knead until the dough comes together. If you handle it too much the gnocchi will be tough.
4. Divide the dough into quarters. Dust your working surface with flour. and roll out the dough with the palms of your hands into a long rope about 1-1.5 cm in diameter. Cut to desired size, around 1-1.5 cm intervals.
5. If you are right handed- use your left hand to hold a fork so the bottom is facing up. Put the gnocchi onto the back end of the tines and use your thumb to press an indentation in the middle. Roll it off the fork in the direction of the tines so that there is a distinct indentation in the back and ridges int he front. It should look like a half crescent. ( Please look up how to do this online, explaining it without pictures is really difficult : / )
6. Place in a single layer on a baking sheet. Boil some salted water, and put gnocchi in. Remove when they float ( it should take around 1-2 minutes!)
7. Dress it up with some sauce and you're good to go!
- To freeze, lay them in a single layer and freeze them before placing them into bags to prevent sticking. You definitely do not want clumps of gnocchi the next time you cook it.

I think you can only get gnocchi to be uniform if you buy them prepackaged.. it's so hard to get them to be similar shapes! Oh well...
The ridges and the indentation in the bottom are there to hold to sauce... I guess it would be useful if I had a marinara or a cream sauce. The ridges just held the oil in my pesto ... I don't know if that's a good thing.