Easiest Homemade Gnocchi + Sauce!

A few weeks ago, I was in an Italian Restaurant and ordered their featured dish: "Italian Gnocchi in a Creamy Tomato Sauce." Sounded good enough. When I received the plate of food and began to dig in, something inside my fell in love. It was delicious.

Lately, it is all I can think about. So, I decided to do some research and collecting recipes, reading comments, noting variations, etc. I decided on a recipe that promised to be delicious and looked fairly
simple to do (I also settled on one for the sauce). In the reviews I had read about this recipe, and many others, many people had complained at the difficulty of and the frustration with the task of making gnocchi. I decided I would risk the challenge and do it anyway. After reading the recipe over a few times (something I always do) I got the ingredients I needed and set to work.

I should warn, that if you are hoping for a quick meal this is definitely not it. But, it is definitely worth the time. I wanted to make this meal, but I figured if I'm going to put this much effort into it, I'm making enough for two batches. One I made for today, and the other I froze to keep for a later date (same with the sauce)!!
Since I had the recipe in my had I scraped the directions and set to work on making my own version of gnocchi. A version that combined several variations I had read about and maybe a twist or two of my own.
So here's what I ended up with:

Gnocchi:
- 4 medium Russet potatoes
- bay leaves (I used two)
- 2 eggs
- 3 cups of flour (have more on hand to use for rolling, etc.)
- salt to taste
- option: instead of salt you can use any seasoning of your choice

Directions:
1) quarter the potatoes and boil till fully cooked
2) After the potatoes are done, spoon them out one at a time (save the water) and peel. When you're done peeling each quarter take a fork and mash it up into bits and set aside in a large bowl to cool.
3) Beat the eggs, then pour them over the potatoes. Add the ricotta and seasoning.
4) Then take 2 cups of flour and sprinkle over the rest of the ingredients.
5) Using a a spatula, or a large metal spoon, mix the ingredients until a doughy-paste is formed. Add more flour and "knead" the dough with the spoon. Keep adding the flour until the dough is okay to work with your hands. Continue doing this until the dough keeps together and is not elastic. If it is a little sticky that's okay.
6) Cut up the batch into round pieces the size of baseballs. One at a time take a ball of dough and roll out on floured surface. Roll into long "snakes" no thinner than your thumb but no thicker than a loonie. Take kitchen scissors (or a knife) and cut up the dough into little balls. I found that the perfect size was about a half a Tim Bit, but if you like them bigger then you can cut them up as big as a whole one! Set the small bits aside onto a floured surface Then do the same for the rest of the dough balls.
7) Bring the potato water to a boil (you may have to add some water). Drop the gnocchi into the water. You can cook up to 20 at a time depending on the size of your pot. They will sink to the bottom. The way to tell when they are done is wait for them to float to the surface and let them float for 3-5 minutes depending on the size of the gnocchi balls.
8) Fish the gnocchi with a slotted spoon and put in a dish. Lightly coat with a tiny bit of olive oil to keep them from sticking to each other and serve with your favorite sauce. Enjoy!

Creamy Tomato Sauce:
- 2 stalks of fresh mint
- Handful of chopped parsley
- 4 whole white mushrooms
- 5 mini  sausages (or 2 regular size. hot dogs will do also)
- 1 large can of diced tomato with Italian seasoning (using fresh tomatoes and seasoning is great too)
- 1 onion
- several cloves of garlic
- 2 tbsp of butter
- 3/4 cup of whipping cream (half and half/whole milk with butter will work also)
- 2 tbsp of flour

Directions:
1) cut up all the veggies and sausage; put in a sauce pan with the butter. Saute until veggies are tender
2) add the can of tomatoes and bring to a light boil. Let it stand till some of the liquid evaporates.
3) stir in the cream and flour and bring to a simmer (flour will help thicken the sauce)
4) you can serve the sauce as is over top the gnocchi (or your favorite pasta) or you can put it all in a blender/food processor and puree to a smooth thick consistency.

One of the things I like to do when cooking is put my own twist on recipes and making up different ones altogether. Feel free to make as many adjustments to suite your taste. I hope this helps!