The Daring Cooks’ September 2013 Challenge: Potato Gnocchi

Daring Cooks posting time again - this month's challenge was thankfully one that was fairly achievable, with no dairy-free difficulties.

Blog checking lines: "Todd, who is The Daring Kitchen's AWESOME webmaster and an amazing cook, is our September Daring Cooks' host! Todd challenged us to make light and fluffy potato Gnocchi and encouraged us to flavour the lil pillows of goodness and go wild with a sauce to top them with!"

Handy hint - to any readers in the UK, try reading that last sentence with an American accent - it will sound less weird!

I followed the challenge recipe but halved it, since we only wanted gnocchi for two.

Gnocchi - just about holding together!

How did it turn out... well, they didn't disintegrate in the water, and were lighter and tasted better than shop bought gnocchi by a long way. However I think I possibly took the instruction not to over mash the potatoes a little too literally, and instead we ended up with chunks of unmashed potato in the finished gnocchi.

I did mash them a little bit more than this... but not enough!

They were certainly easier than I thought - so there's potential that I'll give them another go at some point in the future and perfect the mash!

Innocent little gnocchi ready to take the plunge (and dissolve ever so slightly)

In terms of flavour, I added a little hot Piri Piri sauce to the dough to give it a little extra flavour, and served it with a sauce made from fresh pepper, cherry tomatoes, onion, balsamic vinegar and sausage.

Floating on the top - that means they're done

Mr E and I really enjoyed it. Mini-M not so much, but she did like the sauce. That said, she doesn't like shop bought gnocchi either, so that's probably not a big surprise.

Mini-M's serving suggestion... put gnocchi carefully on the table. Leave. Eat the sauce.