Chestnut gnocchi

I don't remember how I came to find this recipe, but I thought it was very interesting. And good to go on with my recent chestnut craze. Also good to get rid of another foodstuff excess, of chestnuts namely. Chestnuts counterbalance the carbohydrates content of the gnocchi with some proteins. Besides I felt like playing with some dough, like a child at the beach. The recipe comes from this website of some chestnut growers in Michigan, with quite some original recipes.

Kuepper's chestnut gnocchi (adapted)

• 10 ounces potato, peeled
  
• 6 ounces chestnuts, roasted, peeled
• 1 each egg yolk
• 1 each egg
• 1/2 cup bread flour
• 1 pinch nutmeg
• 1/2 ounce butter
• salt, to taste
• pepper, to taste

Boil the potatoes with the chestnuts. Once cooked, rice them and mix thoroughly. Add the butter, egg and yolk and mix. Add the flour to this mixture until you obtain a dough that is stiff enough. Although the recipe doesn't say, after adding the indicated amount of flour I made one gnocchi to boil it and check the final consistency. The amount of flour depends on the amount of liquid and the flour's ability to hydrate, so it can be very variable. Eggs can have various sizes and the potatoes and chestnuts can absorb more or less water. I had to add almost double amount of flour. The final gnocchi must not dissolve in the water, it should feel similar to regular store-bought pasta. By the way, I used spelt flour instead of white flour, I'm a big fan. My gnocchi were acceptable the second time I tested the dough.

Back to my story... when the dough has reached the desired consistency, add a good pinch of nutmeg and salt to taste. Well, if you have a bottle of nutmeg ever since you got married, as if it was a wedding present like me, add two or three pinches, liberally. And now the funny part: roll nice strips of dough (mine were less than 1 cm thick and not very long) and cut them in small portions with a knife, like tiny butterfly pillows. Then you indent the pillows one by one with a fork, to make the characteristic indentations of well-bred gnocchi... I'm sorry, I haven't got any pictures of this step, my hands were far too sticky, but you can watch this funny video. By the way, after forming boil the gnocchi 4 or 5 minutes in salty water. The gnocchi that are not used straight away can be easily frozen scattered on a tray and later put into plastic freezer bags.


Picture of the frother addressing the masses. Observe the shabby look of the gnocchi... their look is far from perfect, but what a character! Isn't this the charm in handmade things? That there are no two of them that look the same? Don't they look like dough cubes that have been trodden by an astronaut? They're ugly, but I love them all the same. That very night I prepared them with some diced bacon, minced garlic fried in olive oil and the drippings of the bacon, plus some parmesan shreds (I had run out of manchego, porca miseria). I admit the chestnut flavour was far from evident... but who cares after spending half the evening at play with dough, cutting strips in gnocchi and getting dirty? Mmmmm, what a healthy regression to childhood.