(upbeat music) - Think of all those
convenience food items that you have in your kitchen, like chicken stock or dried pasta. These are all things that help us get dinner to the table faster. Well, one of my favorite meals is gnocchi, and Julia is here. She's got a secret ingredient
for faster gnocchi. - You know it, because
traditional recipes for gnocchi are notoriously long and finicky. You start with a whole
potato and you boil it whole and then you peel it while it's hot. You rice it, you mix it with flour, and then you add a
variable amount of water depending on the day, and the potatoes. - Yes. And the mood. - Yes. To get the perfect dough, because if it's a little wet,
the potato gnocchi are mushy. If's a little dry, they're lead sinkers. - Exactly. - So the answer is potato flakes. Now they taste like potatoes. They're dehydrated potatoes. You can add the same
amount of water every time and you'll always get the perfect dough. - What a great thing. I actually keep these on
hand for bread baking. - Yeah, and they're great
for thickening up stews. - It's a good product
to have in your pantry. So we're gonna start with
two cups of potato flakes. And you wanna make sure
you buy potato flakes that don't have any flavorings in them, because they're out there. There's a whole aisle of potato flakes. You want the plain ones.
- Okay. - So to that, we're gonna add
a cup of all-purpose flour and two teaspoons of table salt. I'm just gonna whisk this together. All right, for the
liquid, we're gonna have a cup and a half of water and one egg. We're gonna whisk this together
and just break up that egg. (liquid sloshing) All right, there we go. We're just gonna add this liquid mixture right to the potato mixture, and mix it together to make a dough. - You shaved an hour off
of this recipe, easy. - If not more.
- Yeah. - And a lot of the guesswork. - Yes. And the crying. (Julia laughs) - We're gonna let it hang out
here for about three minutes. Really let those potato
flakes and the flour absorb the moisture
before we knead the dough. - [Bridget] Okay. - All right, you can see the dough has really absorbed that liquid. - [Bridget] Sure has. - Yeah, and that was just a few minutes. So now the next trick is
we're gonna knead the dough for just a few minutes help build up some of
that gluten development. That'll just help give
the dough some structure. - [Bridget] Right, because
potatoes don't have gluten. - [Julia] That's right. - [Bridget] And a lot
of this dough is potato. - [Julia] That's it. - [Bridget] The flour that's in there, you want to activate that gluten. - [Julia] That's right.
- [Bridget] Got it. All right. This dough,
it's turned to the corner. I can feel it, it's giving
me just a little resistance. So we're gonna sprinkle this
just with a little flower. Let it rest for five minutes and then we're gonna roll up the gnocchi. - Yes. This dough is rested and we're
ready to shape the gnocchi. So I'm gonna cut this dough
into six equal pieces. Cut it in half, then cut
each half into thirds. - [Bridget] I like that you're
kind of scoring it first. - Yeah. It doesn't have to be perfect. Set those pieces aside. And we're just gonna work with this one. We're gonna roll this out into a rope. Rope's gonna be about three
quarter of an inch in diameter. - [Bridget] Okay. - It's almost like working with clay. It is just so perfectly malleable. You wanna feel it? You gotta feel that. It's just, it's a pleasure
to work with this dough. - Very nice.
- Yeah. All right, so again, you're
looking for about three quarters of an inch in diameter, on the money. Now I'm gonna use a bench scraper and just make three quarter inch pieces. First one I like to measure,
get a sense of things. I'll just do one as my,
all right, now I got it. (scraper clacking) - [Bridget] Yeah. We were gonna have words if you were gonna measure each one. (both laughing) - Now is the fun part. - Well, they're raw. I
don't wanna eat them now. - Well, there's different ways that you can shape the gnocchi. You can just cook 'em
like this nice and fast. You can just put a dimple in
the center. That's super cute. I'm a real fan of the traditional look which has the ridges on it. So here you're gonna take
your fork, take the cut side put it on the fork, and
then use your thumb. Just make those ridges. That's it. We're doing it right
onto this baking sheet that's well dusted with the flour so they can just sit
there until we cook 'em. - [Bridget] Lovely. Well, these are easy. - [Julia] Yeah. All right. So that first one's done. Now we're just gonna repeat
it with the rest of the dough. - All right. - Our gnocchi look fabulous, and they're waiting for some sauce and to be cooked, which
is what we're gonna do. - All right. Now we're gonna make a quick sauce made with tomato and
garlic and some fresh basil it's my personal favorite
way to eat gnocchi. Here we have two tablespoons of olive oil in this broiler safe skillet. Gonna add two cloves of
garlic using the press right into the pan. All right. Gonna put
this over medium heat. Let it cook for about two minutes until that garlic just
starts to turn golden. - Okay. - Oh, that garlic, you can smell it. It's just starting to turn
golden which is perfect. - [Bridget] A little toasty. - Yeah. That smells good.
- [Bridget] Smells great. - So now I'm gonna add a 15
ounce can of tomato sauce. Nice and easy.
(sauce sizzling) Now we're gonna add a teaspoon
of sugar, just a little bit. Quarter teaspoon of dried oregano and a quarter teaspoon of black pepper. We just wanna heat this through, really bring it to a nice simmer. Alright. I love this
sauce cause you're just taking canned tomato
sauce and flavoring it with a few things to bring it up a notch. - Julia told me that we
have other sauces available on our website. We've got a brown butter
and caper. Sounds delicious. And also a fontina cheese sauce. Those are all available,
as I said on the website. All right. That's come
up to a good simmer. Now time to turn the heat
off and have some fun. We're gonna add basil and we're just gonna
rip it with our hands. - Ooh.
- Nice and rustic. - [Bridget] Rustic. - I like the big pieces of basil in here. I like how they taste with the gnocchi. Cause the gnocchi, you
know, it's quite a mouthful. - Yes. - So this is half a cup of
basil leaves. All right. All right, just gonna stir this basil in. Oh, that sauce is nice and warm. - [Bridget] Beautiful.
- [Julia] Yeah. Just gonna put the lid
on. Set this off heat. Let it stay nice and warm. And waiting for the gnocchi.
- Great. - So slide on down. Here we have our gnocchi
that is ready to cook. Now you can cook these right away but they also freeze like a dream. What you would do is
you'd put this whole tray right in the freezer, and
then when they're firm put 'em in a plastic
bag for up to a month. - [Bridget] Oh wow. Okay, great. - So here we have four
quarts of boiling water to which I'm gonna add a
tablespoon of table salt. And now we're gonna add half the gnocchi. And I found it's really
easy to transfer the gnocchi around using a bench scraper 'cause it's pretty delicate dough. So we're just gonna add half
of it right to the water. - [Bridget] Very nice.
- [Julia] Yeah. - [Bridget] Easy to portion
out half that way too. Yep. Let's see. Yeah, it looks like about half. We're just gonna cook these, boil them for about one and a half minutes. They have the telltale
sign that they're done because they float. So we'll stir really gently. You don't wanna beat them up
too much until they've cooked. Oh, there's the gnocchi starting to float. That means it's cooked through. So now what we're gonna do is go right into the sauce
using a wire skimmer. I'm just gonna skim the
gnocchi out, let them drain, add them right to the sauce. And if a little pasta water
gets in that sauce, it's okay. It's seasoned. It loosens
up the sauce a bit. No harm, no foul. I think that's all of them. So the water is back to
a boil, which is great. Now time to add the rest of the gnocchi. All right. That second
batch of gnocchi is done. Time to pull it out of my foamy pot. The second batch does get a little foamy 'cause there's a lot of
extra starch in that water. - [Bridget] It's all right.
It's like a treasure hunt. - It is. It makes it fun. Right into the sauce. So you could just serve this gnocchi as is with the fresh basil sauce. - [Bridget] Okay, let's do it. - [Julia] It's delicious, but I wanna just make it special for you. I'm gonna make it al forno. Which means we're gonna
put a little cheese on it and put it in the oven. And this is my favorite
way at eating gnocchi. When I was first dating my
husband, Ian, who you know, he would take me to this
little place in Brighton. He taught me how to order
the gnocchi al forno 'cause it's not on the menu. And man, is it good? All right. So we're gonna top this with a little ricotta and mozzarella. So that's half a cup of ricotta. Just gonna dollop it here
and there, over the top. - [Bridget] Mm.
- [Julia] Yeah. It's nice 'cause you don't, it's not with every bite,
but every few bites, you just get this nice creamy ricotta. Mm. That mixes with the sauce. - [Bridget] Yes, please.
- [Julia] Mm hm. Now we're gonna add one and
a half cups of mozzarella. And this is that whole milk mozzarella that I shredded myself. So you know it's gonna melt really well. - [Bridget] Exactly. Some of
the part skim mozzarellas. Yeah, you can put them
in the oven for years. Nice. Keep their shape. Not good. - Especially if they're pre shredded and they're tossed with that
anti-caking agent, never melts. So we're gonna put this in the
oven just for a little bit, right under the broiler, about eight inches from the broiler. Gonna get nice and brown.
Let that cheese melt. Takes about three minutes. Oh.
- [Bridget] Oh. - Oh, that's pretty. - Oh, I'll get the door again. - Thank you. I love it when the cheese
just gets a little brown and the mozzarella's all melted. We're gonna let it rest
for just five minutes because it is pretty hot. All right. This is cooled
nicely for five minutes. - [Bridget] Oh. Oh, look at that. - [Julia] I know, I got you
the perfect little round of ricotta there. I'm gonna make you a big old
bowl. I hope that's okay. Little ricotta on top. All right.
- [Bridget] All right. - [Julia] All right, now.
Hmm. A little Parmesan on top? - [Bridget] Yes, please.
- [Julia] Just 'cause you can. - [Bridget] There's not
enough cheese on there. Julia, Fix that. The proof of the gnocchi
is in the tasting. That's a really good texture.
- [Julia] It is. - [Bridget] Really good texture. - [Julia] Yeah. It's the
perfect pillowy texture. It's has enough structure to
actually chew a little bit. So it's not super fluffy,
which I don't like, but it's not a lead sinker. - No, absolutely. This
is like perfect gnocchi. And the sauce, very quick to
put together, but perfect. A little bit of tomato sauce,
a little bit of garlic. Just kept it nice and simple. - Julia] Yep. And those
big pieces of basil. - And the big chunks of cheese too. (sighs) There's a danger in this bowl. - [Julia] There is. - [Bridget] I might over-indulge again. - [Julia] I'm with you. - This might be some of the
best gnocchi I've ever had. - [Julia] Nice. - Instant mashed potato flakes? - Thanks Bridget. - You're a genius. Well, if you'd love to
make this gnocchi at home, use instant potato flakes
to make a quick dough. Knead the dough until it
springs back just a little bit. And boil the gnocchi salted
water until they float. So from Cooks Country, a genius recipe for instant mashed
potato gnocchi al forno. - Thanks for watching Cooks Country from America's Test Kitchen. So what'd you think? - Leave a comment and let us know which recipes you're excited to make or just say hi. - Now you can find links to today's recipes and reviews
in the video description. - And don't forget to
subscribe to our channel. - See you later. - Alligator. (laughs)
