When talking about gnocchi, sometimes people don’t take them into account because they consider them a heavy dish, since they are made of potatoes and flour. But the truth is that there are preparations of gnocchi that can be much lighter by leaving out the mashed potatoes.
Expert cooks and chefs provide incredible preparations of gnocchi using light ingredients. Keep reading to learn a way of how to prepare your own light gnocchi. Also, you will get side dishes with which to accompany them.
How to make light gnocchi
Light gnocchi are very easy to make. For their preparation you just have at hand flour, water, eggs, oil, nutmeg, salt and pepper. Then, follow the directions below to proceed with their cooking:
- Boil in a pan 4 cups of water with one pinch of salt, one of nutmeg and one of pepper and 1 tablespoon of oil.
- Once boiling point is reached, add 4 cups of flour sifted with a sieve.
- Stir continuously to mix it with the water and form the base for the dough.
- When the dough for the gnocchi without potatoes comes off the bottom of the pan, remove from the heat and let it warm.
- Add two eggs, one at a time, stirring continuously so that the egg is perfectly incorporated into the mixture and does not curdle. Allow to cool.
- When the dough is already cold, form a not very thick roll about the thickness of the thumb.
- Then, with a knife, cut small pieces of about 2-3 cm that will form the dumplings.
- You can shape the dumplings by turning on themselves and fold them in half on a gnocchi board or a fork making an incision in the surface.
- Press them a little with the thumb.
- The dumpling final shape has a striped texture on one side and an incision on the other. Or, if you prefer, you can simply give them their characteristic rounded shape without marking the stripes (they are called malfatti, Italian for “bad shaped”). They will be just as tasty, but without grooves, the sauce will not adhere to the pasta so easily.
- Once the dumplings are done, place them on a worktop or tray with flour, so that they do not stick together and do not lose their shape.
- To cook the gnocchi without potatoes, put a pot with water to boil, and when the water is boiling, add the gnocchi. You will know they are ready when they float on the surface. And that’s it!
- Then, drain and add the sauce you like the most, as it happens with all pasta recipes, and you can eat the gnocchi without potatoes as a delicious dish. These light gnocchi will also serve as a spectacular snack.
You may also like trying regular gnocchi recipes.Follow https://olivieri.ca/gnocchi-recipes/ and you’ll see several recipes to prepare very appetizing gnocchi dishes, some of them using exotic ingredients that for sure will please your diners’ palate.
Other healthy and easy to prepare light gnocchi without potatoes are:
Spinach gnocchi
These light spinach gnocchi are also easy to prepare and offer a soft texture to the palate. They are sometimes called homemade green gnocchi. Ideal to serve with a fine cheese sauce or a tasty tomato sauce.
Homemade ricotta gnocchi
These homemade ricotta gnocchi are simple and delicious. It is a soft pasta dish of Italian origin ideal to serve with tomato sauce.
Light pumpkin gnocchi with whole wheat flour
This is a light gnocchi recipe whose dough is made with pumpkin puree and without egg yolk.
Accompaniment to light gnocchi
Light gnocchi can just be served with delicious sauces such as bolognese sauce, amatriciana sauce, carbonara sauce or four cheese sauce. But there are diverse side dishes that can be used to accompany them like:
- Italian stuffed tomatoes.
- Garlic mushrooms.
- Garlic Parmesan green beans.
- Green peas with butter.
- Garlic Parmesan broccoli.
