I'm Thinking Gnocchi...

Gnocchi...I haven't made them in a long time. For some reason I have been spoiled by my Godmother, in Italy: this sweet old lady makes potato gnocchi at least once every two weeks or so and when she makes them she makes A LOT! She lives alone, so she basically makes them with with the purpose of delivering freezer bags to her "entourage": her four sons and families, a few friends, my mom and dad, my brother and his family and, back when I was in Italy, me.

Gnocchi are potato dumplings, as most of you probably know, a traditional dish that used to be a part of festive meals. Very filling, they are normally served with ragu', tomato sauce or simply your butter-sage-parmesan cheese dressing. Or (this too is pretty common, just like for fresh egg noodle) any gravy from the meat pot on the stove, whatever is supposed to be the main course of the day: roast beef, chicken, veal stew, anything.
Nowadays you can find them at restaurants in Italy with all sort of "trendier" sauces, but they don't impress me. Personally, my favorite are still those with butter and sage. Or with the sauce of a good "pollo in umido", a chicken stew in a tomato sauce. Which brings me to what made me crave gnocchi these days: I have a container of this sauce in the freezer waiting for the right match. I was thinking to use it for tagliatelle, but I am reconsidering it and I will probably make some gnocchi soon.

I hope I am able to choose the right potatoes for the purpose. I am not an expert and here there are so many varieties to choose from and I am not familiar with most of them (advices are welcome, if you have any). I need a potato with a high content of starch and little water, because this allows me not to add too much flour to the dough and it makes a world of difference in taste and texture. Normally I would use what we call an "old potato", when some time has gone by from the moment they have been picked up, and therefore part of the water has been lost in the "aging" process. But again, I am not an expert and most of the times, if I can't ask for advice at the store, I just cross my fingers and hope I pick the right ones.

The word "gnocchi" commonly refers to the potato ones, but this is not your only kind: among others, I love the ricotta gnocchi, which is a pretty recent discover for me. Very delicate in taste. I am not a great fan of the zucca (pumpkin) gnocchi instead, even if I think I should do some researches and experiment some, in this regards, as I find they would be a very good fit for the upcoming Halloween period. Just to give my Italian touch to the seasonal menu. For a change ;-)