Gnocchi

Let me tell you about gnocchi, and why so many cooks ruin them before the water even boils.

Gnocchi are little potato dumplings — potato mashed, bound with a bit of flour, rolled into those soft pillows you boil briefly and dress like pasta. Take one between your fingers before you cook it. It should feel soft, give a little, but not stick to your skin. Press it gently and it should hold its shape, not smear. That tells you more than any package ever will.

Choose them by touch and smell. Fresh gnocchi should smell faintly of potato, nothing sour, nothing like old dough. Damp, sticky pieces clumping together in the tray are telling you something, so look them over before you buy. With dried gnocchi, run your hand through the bag — they should feel even, whole, no dust of broken pieces at the bottom, and the smell should still be clean.

Some people say the more flour you knead in, the better the gnocchi hold together. Well, yes and no. A little flour does bind them, that's true enough. But a cook who believes more is always better keeps adding at the first sign of stickiness, and ends up with dumplings like rubber — heavy, tight, chewy, bread in a dumpling's clothes, their lightness gone before they even hit the water. Add flour sparingly, and taste one straight out of the pot — that tells you everything.