knock knock...gnocchi

my first new dish of the new year...gnocchi. with this new dish came some revelations.

first, homemade gnocchi is deceptively hard work, which is why i think i have not yet made them. you've got the potatoes (peeling, cutting, boiling, draining, cooling and ricing). you've got the dough (eggs and flour and lots of patience). you've got the actual gnocchi (rolling out said dough into thin little ropes, cut into even littler pieces, and then stamped with a fork). finally, like any dough, you have to boil it and dress it with some sorta sauce.
second, potato ricers are cool.
third, consistency (size and shape) is difficult. as much as i tried to make them all the same, it wasn't until i was actually cooking them when i realized that some of them were floating to the top quicker than others. something to work for...
fourth, freezing them is a handy little tip i learned at a culinary festival and it worked like a charm. this recipe gave me roughly three separate servings so i have two bags of gnocchi in my freezer for another night. meatless mondays...maybe i will eat them tomorrow.
fifth, i have always respected italians but my respect is renewed and at a much deeper level after this affair. this was a lot of work and and a lot of effort and although it was not even close to my best, i am proud of myself for trying this and i hope to try it again. much like my repeated attempts at perfecting risotto, i think striving for perfect gnocchi could be a noble effort.
finally, i need to go to italy.
that is all.