Time of preparation: 1 hour
6 portions
This is my dad's favourite and my grandma made the best I've ever had. My mum used to engage our help in the kitchen whenever she made the gnocchis and this may be an idea for children in the kitchen.
Gnocchi:
6 medium potatoes
1 cup of flour
salt
Sauce:
1 jar of tomato sauce
1/2 onion, finely chopped
1 tbspoon of olive oil
2 cubes of meat stock
500g of minced meat
grated parmesan
Cook the potatoes until soft. Drain, peal and mash them, while hot. Little by little, add the flour and salt. Kneed it well. It will always be sticky, but it can't be too sticky. Spread flour over the counter and put the gnocchi dough on top of it. Roll it making little gnocchi snakes, like children do with playdoh. Cut each snake in pieces of 2cm more or less.
In a big pan, boil water seasoned with salt. When the water boils, add the gnocchis in the water one by one. They are done when they float. Fill another big pan with cold water and put a colander inside it, under water. Put the gnocchis, fresh from the hot water in the cold water, for a thermal shock.
Drain it well and put the gnocchis in a oven-proof dish.
Sauce
Heat the olive oil, fry the onion and add the meat and the cubes of stock. Stirr and when the meat is cooked, add the tomato sauce and let it cook for 4 more minutes. Put it on top of the gnocchi, sprinkle grated parmesan on top and take it to the oven for 15-20 min. Serve it hot.
OBS: My grandma used to make Gnocchi a Romana: instead of using only tomato sauce, you use also white sauce. This is my favourite.
The way to do is this: you put the gnocchis on the oven-proof dish, and with the help of a spoon, make a cavity in the middle of them, where you put the white sauce. After that you put the tomato sauce on top of it, gently, in order to hide the white sauce. This way, we only find it when the first person gets a portion. Don't stirr the sauces, they will combine in a beautiful way!
