Gnocchi Sorrentina

Feel like a comforting meal for a cold, rainy or sad day? We’ve got you covered: heartwarming, homemade gnocchi with a very simple, yet flavoursome sugo.

As with almost every dish, the quality of the ingredients are crucial here. Make sure you get good, extra virgin olive oil (commonly referred to as "EVOO" in Melbourne), parmesan cheese and buffalo mozzarella.

As this dish is finished off by baking it in the oven, it is a suitable option if you’re feeding a larger group of people.

Story

While Sam and I studied for our Masters Degrees, a new Italian Restaurant called Kaprica opened around the corner of Melbourne Business School. It was a tiny place with a very down-to-earth interior. As the restaurant had no separate kitchen, you could watch owner and chef Pietro Barbagallo prepare the dishes right next to you from the hand-witten, single-page menu.

This is where the two of us had our first dinner together, after a long day of lectures and studying. We still head to Kaprica when visiting Melbourne. Pietro is very proud to serve customers from the early days at his venue, which he has since upgraded.

There used to be just a single pasta dish on the menu: Gnocchi Sorrentina. Pietro has shared his recipe in the Broadsheet Melbourne Cookbook, which is the source for the following.

Recipe

Serves 4-5 People

80 ml extra-virgin olive oil

1 Tsp of chopped garlic

1 handfull of basil leaves

1kg canned diced tomatoes

200g parmesan, grated

450g buffalo mozzarella, chopped

Gnocchi

800g desiree potatoes, skin on

Salt flakes

1 egg yolk

200g typo 00 flour

To make the gnocchi, cook the potatoes in boiling and salted water until soft. This shouldn’t take longer than 30-35 minutes. Then drain.

While the potatoes are cooking, prepare the sugo. Heat oil in a saucepan over medium to low heat. Add garlic and basil to infuse the oil, being careful to not burn the garlic. Add the diced tomatoes and season with salt and black pepper. Simmer for 30 minutes.

Fill a large pot with salted water and bring to boil. You’ll need this to be ready for the gnocchi. Also, preheat your oven to 180°C fan-forced.

Peel the potatoes while they’re still hot - be very careful not to burn your hands. Mash the potatoes using a potato ricer (alternatively use a fork - never use a food processor as this destroys the texture of the starches). Add pinch of salt, the egg yolk and ¾ of the flour and bring everything together into a dough. If the dough is too sticky to handle, add some more flour. Shape the dough into logs about 2cm thick on a slightly floured surface. Cut each log into 3-4 cm pieces and brush or shake off any excess flour.

Boil the gnocchi in batches in the boiling water. Once risen to the surface, they’re done. Take them out with a slotted slotted spoon and put them into a baking dish, together with your sugo. Proceed the same way with your remaining gnocchi.

Mix the gnocchi through the sugo, sprinkle over the parmesan and scatter over your buffalo mozzarella. Bake the whole thing for about 12-15 minutes until then mozzarella has melted.

Serve with some extra basil if you like. We don't just like, we love it.