Gnocchi Gnocchi who is there!

Adapted from River Cafe.

White floury potatoes 1 Kg
Plain flour 250g
Unsalted butter 100g

Wash the potatoes and keep them whole.Cook with their skins, in boiling salted water until soft, about 20 minutes depending on size.
Peel and whilst hot, immediately put through a mouli or potato ricer on to a clean surface. If you don't have a mouli or ricer then use a normal kitchen sieve and push the cooked potato in cubes through the wire with a spatula, so the potato comes out nice and satin-like.

Sift over the flour, season and combine rapidly, to form a smooth, soft and elastic dough.

Roll into sausage-like roles of about 1.5 cm in diameter, and cut into pieces about 2-3cm long. See photos for help.Press each piece against the prongs of a fork to form little ridges, or make tiny incisions with a sharp knife on each piece - these will help hold the sauce.

Cook the gnocchi in boiling salted water for 3 minutes but make sure the water is not furiously boiling but a very gentle simmer or your gnocchi will disintegrate. Cook them until they rise to the surface. Remove with a slotted spoon to a warmed dish.

Melt the butter until just soft, and combine with gnocchi. Season and serve with cheese, or alternatively with either a mushroom, vege, or tomato sauce-recipes to follow below.

Tomato sauce
red onions 3
Basil leaves 3 tsp
Olive oil 2 tbs
Tin tomatoes 2 x 400g

Peel and slice the onions as thinly as possible into rounds. Peel and finely slice the garlic.

Heat the olive oil in a wide thick-bottomed pan, then add the onion and garlic. Cook over low heat until very soft, but not brown.
Add the tomatoes, and stir to break them up, then season. Cook slowly over a low to moderate heat, stirring occasionally, for at least an hour. remove from the heat and stir in basil.

Cook the gnocchi as before but omit the butter. Serve with the tomato sauce, sprinkled with parmesan or plain colby!

Mushroom sauce
Shallots 4
Mushrooms 400g
tbsp cream
Olive oil

Add olive oil to a pan.Peel and dice shallots. Add mushrooms and shallots together and on slow heat let mushrooms cook until their halved their size. If the pan gets a little dry add a dash of water to help the cooking process. Add a generous tbsp of cream and sir under and serve.

Silverbeet sauce

Shallots 3
Silverbeet 5,6 big leaves (or spinach, peas, beans etc)
Olive oil

Add olive oil to a pan.Peel shallots and add with thinly sliced silverbeet into pan. Let slowly cook untilt he leaves are wilted. Again if the pan gets too dry add a dash of water to help the cooking process.

Stir under the gnocchi