Even when I read novels, I get hungry.
"Back home, I told the cook girl to boil enough pots of water and to chop enough pork and vegetables to make a thousand dumplings, both steamed and boiled, with plenty of fresh ginger, good soy sauce and sweet vinegar for dipping." From "The Kitchen God's Wife" by Amy Tan.
Little wonder that I taught myself to make pot stickers. (Thank you to cookbook author Eileen Yin-Fei Lo.)
In the "The Fault in Our Stars," John Green's passage about green-garlic gnocchi drove me right to my recipe collection.
Little wonder both these dumpling passages entice the cook in me. At once, dumplings sound comforting, somewhat mysterious and exotic. For example, the tender dough that defies nature by encasing rich broth and other goodies in the soup dumplings at Joe's Shanghai in New York. Even the traditional Bavarian leberknodelsuppe (liver dumplings in rich broth) offers filling warmth and unusual flavor. Italian gnocchi, with their signature plump, ridge-back shape practically beg sauce to cling.
Gnocchi (aka dumplings) can be found throughout Italy in various shapes and flavors. I'm partial to the variety lightened (if you can believe it) with potato. These take readily to all manner of seasonings and sauce.
I started making gnocchi at home when chef Paul Bertolli published his recipe in a 1999 issue of Fine Cooking magazine. I'm happy to report that his recipe remains my favorite. Six simple ingredients meld into light-as-a-feather dumplings begging for melted butter or a simple tomato sauce.
Make homemade gnocchi when there's time to enjoy your kitchen and the company of some Italian opera. Start by squishing baked potatoes with cream, egg, salt and pepper. Then gently work in flour with delicate motions into a light dough. You can roll small nuggets of this dough and tattoo them with the tines of a fork into their classic gnocchi shape. Or simply cut the dough into miniature Tootsie-roll shapes.
The gnocchi can be cooked the same day or frozen for several weeks. They cook beautifully straight from the freezer.
The tomato, pancetta and orange sauce that follows is a riff on a pal's favorite spaghetti recipe from the Sunshine Tavern in Portland. At first, the addition of prunes seems odd, but they melt into the tomatoes, adding a mysterious sweetness that tastes terrific with the rich pancetta and delicate leeks.
The good news is that store-bought gnocchi puts this recipe squarely in my weeknight repertoire. Look for the best gnocchi in the refrigerated section of large supermarkets or Italian specialty markets. Select gluten-free prepared gnocchi (made from potatoes, corn flour and potato starch) when you need to avoid gluten.
For Green's green-garlic gnocchi, I saute chopped green garlic in unsalted butter when it's in season at the farmers market. At this time of the year, green onions and minced fresh garlic sauteed in butter taste just fine.
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