Homemade Gnocchi With Buttered Sage and Poppy Seeds

Why is it that kids need you the most when your hands are temporarily not available for use? Like when you just plunged your hands into a mountain of flour and egg making everything gooey? Or when all your fingers are stuck to each other with dough in between them. Mind you, before my hands dive into any food that I am preparing, I give out more than enough number of warnings that my hands will not be available for the next 15 minutes. I always get an affirmative then after 2 minutes, I hear "Mommy!" And that often translates to "I need you and your hands"!

Gnocchi is always appreciated on our table not just on Thursdays but on any day when I have the time to knead, slice and roll. Why Thursday? Because in Rome, the traditional dish for Thursday is gnocchi. Thus the saying Giovedì gnocchi, Venerdi pesce (Thursday gnocchi, Friday fish). The days in other Italian regions differ though. Nowadays, this tradition is not as followed as before so you can find gnocchi any day of the week and no one will grab your dish away from you if it's not the right day. 

I don't make gnocchi often but when I do, I always say to myself that I should do it more often because it is so different from the commercial ones or from the fresh pasta shops. I don't know, maybe because I work hard in making them from scratch but they sure do taste better and are even softer. I don't like the chewy ones so I try to lessen the flour as much as possible. The more flour you put in the dough, the harder or chewier it becomes and the less flour there is, the softer it becomes. But then, you also have to take into consideration the kind of potatoes you are using. The best kind of potatoes to use are the starchy ones. Softer gnocchi is harder to work with but there is a happy ending to it. You will definitely love the finished product in your mouth! Vitelotte potatoes are quite perfect (and pretty!) for making gnocchi. Check out this gnocchi recipe I made using these violet potatoes.

You will find this Homemade Gnocchi With Buttered Sage & Poppy Seed Recipe in She Knows, a site tackling interesting topics where I often create recipes. This specific recipe has step-by-step photos to guide you in preparing the gnocchi from scratch. That's to make everything easier for you! If you are interested in my profile page there where you can find a list of recipes I made and some travel articles, click on this link.

Thanks and I hope your weekend had been fulfilling as mine!