Gnocchi (potato dumpling pasta)

from the Touch Family Recipes

		   Gnocchi (potato dumpling pasta)
	    "Everbody's favorite birthday dinner request"
			      Joe Touch

In our family, on your birthday, you get to pick the dinner entree.
Regardless of the variety of restaurants or other family recipes, I
never recall *anyone* *ever* requesting anything except gnocci. At one
point, we just stopped asking ;-)

First, it's "ynoh-key". The first part is a "eeenyoh," except without
the 'eee'. It can also be said "ynuk-key", the first syllable of which
is the staple "ynuk ynuk ynuk" of Three-Stoges fame. It's hard to get
right; little kids in our family say "yuk-eees", but they *know*
they're not yucky. ;-)

Second, a warning. These little devils sop up water like nobody's
business.  If you drink a tall glass while you eat, you WILL get a
stomach ache. Drink before you eat, and sip while you eat.

Third, another warning. These are notoriously hard to make. This
recipe is from my father's family, and they say that if you make them
wrong they stick together in the pot and make one big "gnocckle"
(rhymes with ankle, but starts with the ynuk sound).

	UPDATE: my brother had some inspired tricks this past year. His 
	cooking tricks usually frighten me, as they often involve spice
	roulette or somesuch variation. This one is a shortcut, and it
	works REALLY well. I'll present that as the basic recipe, and 
	not where the original methods diverge as side-notes.

They freeze OK, but not very long (a few weeks), due to the potato
content.

Ingredients for 6-8 people:

	5 lbs potatoes		use russet baking potatoes, NOT red, gold,
				new, fingerling, or anything else!
				the starch content has to be HIGH, and 
				water content has to be LOW
						
	3 c flour		white, Gold Medal, all-purpose is fine
	
	1 egg			large

	dash of salt
	
You will need a potato ricer - it looks like a large garlic press,
something you'd squirt grapefruit-sized garlic through. If you don't
have one, a coarse metal seive/strainer will work, using a wooden
spoon to push the potato through it. Don't try it with a plastic
strainer - it won't work. And don't 'mash' the potatoes either with a
masher or in the mixer; that doesn't work at all.
	
WARNING: do NOT overmix. they'll turn into b
ubblegum. do NOT add water; more bubblegum.

Here's the fast way, due to my brother's trick:

Wash the potatoes, and remove blemishes (dark spots, eyes, green
areas, etc). No need to peel, quarter, etc.

Poke the potatoes with a fork so they don't explode in the microwave,
then cook in the microwave until fully-cooked. This will take a while,
around 3 minutes for each potato. You can do them in batches, but turn
them as they cook; you don't want overcooked spots.

NOTE - you don't need to have them completely cooked when the come out
of the microwave; they'll cook a minute or two after they're out
anyway, so go easy.

Slice the potatoes in half, and place each half, one at a time, cut
side down into the ricer or strainer. Push through. note - this may
squirt HOT potato out the sides, so go slowly at first. do this onto a
clean counter - wood, glass, metal, stone, etc. don't try it into a
bowl; you want to let the steam rise out of the riced potato. as you
go, spread out the mixture to dissepate the heat and steam.

	THIS IS THE TRICK! no need to peel the potatoes. doing them 
	in the microwave keeps things dry, and lets the water out.
	
	the old way was to peel and quarter the potatoes, and cook
	them in salt water. then you had to strain the water out, and
	steam the potatoes in the pan to drive out some of the water
	they absorbed - which made a crusty mess on the bottom of the
	pan, and took forever. you still ended up ricing the result
	
Now to the rest - sprinkle the flour on top of the potato, and make a
little crater. hopefully the potato isn't steaming hot anymore;
scramble the egg, add the salt (no pepper), and add to the well. mix
GENTLY by pushing in the sides of the crater, then folding in the
sides of the mountain.

DO NOT OVERMIX. mix gently. once the mix comes together, STOP. 

Cut off chunks, and roll to around the thickness of a think magic
marker (1/2-3/4" diameter). Cut into little chunks that are basically
square (same thickness as diameter).

	As you roll it out, you can dust the outside with some flour,
	but at this point USE DUSTING FLOUR SPARINGLY!
	
My father used to slice the chunks off with a knife, and flick the
cuttings through some dusted flour to the right of the cutting area,
which rolled the chunks just enough to cover the cut edges.

Place on cookie sheets lightly dusted with flour. Don't try to use
waxed paper - it won't help here. You can freeze the sheets, which
will make the gnocchi come off more easily.

Cook in LOTS of salted water. Once they float, they're done. 
Do NOT overcook.

When you take them out, drain in a colendar - do NOT rinse. Toss with
some spaghetti sauce or they'll stick together!