Frozen Potatoes Gnocchi

Gnocchi are various thick, soft dough dumplings that may be made from semolina, ordinary wheat flour, egg, cheese, potato, breadcrumbs, cornmeal, or similar ingredients, with or without flavourings of herbs, vegetables, cocoa, or prunes. The dough for gnocchi is most often rolled out, then cut into small pieces of about the size of a cork. They are then pressed with a fork or a cheese grater to make ridges which hold sauce. Alternatively, they are simply cut into little lumps. Gnocchi are usually eaten as a replacement for pasta as a first course, but they can also be served as a contorno (side dish) to some main courses.

Like many Italian dishes, gnocchi have considerable variation in recipes and names across different regions. For example, Lombard and Tuscan malfatti (literally “poorly made”) are made with ricotta, flour and spinach, as well as the addition of various other herbs if required, similar to Tuscan gnudi which distinctively contains less flour; Campanian strangulaprievete are flour-based gnocchi, just like Apulian cavatielli and Sardinian malloreddus, and so on.Gnocchi are commonly cooked on their own in boiling salted water and dressed with various sauces depending on the type, and recipe used. Some gnocchi can be made from pieces of cooked polenta or semolina, which is spread out to dry and then layered with cheese and butter and finished in the oven.