SARDINIAN FEAST Potato Gnocchi in Anna's Kitchen

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Here in Santa Maria Navaresse on the east coast of Sardinia, surrounded by the watercolor-blue waves of the Mediterranean, there is a feast going on. All the time. Since we arrived at Anna's home, she has been showering us with an embarrassing abundance of food and kindness. Sardinians seem to make, cure, grow or harvest all there own food (right down to the sea salt) and Anna's family is no exception. Prosciutto, oranges, eggs, cookies, flatbread and wine was waiting for our arrival. Anna even makes the baskets to hold the beautiful abundance.



"Limoni, zucchero, aquavit, latte di capra...", Anna carefully listed each ingredient used to make the delicious liqueur we were sipping. She lit a fire in the corner of the hearth and was plying us with pizzeles -Italian waffle cookies. Her spirit, warmth and patience made it easy to communicate, even without sharing a common language. By the time I managed to ask if I could join her in the kitchen next time she was making something she was one step ahead of me, she knew by now that I wanted details. And details I got! Over the course of my time there she gave me a hands on gnocchi lesson, prepared traditional Sardinian dishes for us to try and even gave me her cornetti dolci recipe. Wow. We travelled to Sardinia for the great hiking, beaches and island culture, but never dreamed we'd arrive at this food paradise. We were fools...lucky fools.



Sardinia is one of the so-called 'blue zones' where people often live past 100. This long life is commonly attributed to lifestyle habits like constant moderate activity, socializing, close family groups and food! Fresh, wonderful food. I don't know how old Anna is, but keeping up with her isn't easy. She's quick witted, fast on her feet and is a prolific conversationalist. When I heard the knock on our door signaling our gnocchi date, I knew it was time for action and I didn't want to miss a beat. While the potatoes were simmering in salted water she showed me the wood fired oven where she bakes the Pane Carisau -a thin twicebaked flatbread named after ancient parchment the sacred Sardinian music was written on. It was all too much, too much history, too much generosity...and I didn't have the Italian words to express it. I just had to soldier on, and it was time to rice the potatoes!



Anna's small kitchen is packed with useful things. In addition to the wood fired oven, there is a commercial grade mixer, a chest freezer, a long bench to form doughs and even a tiny dough laminator...a baker's dream. She even brought out the cloth her mother wove to use in the laminator, it's still in great shape, though it is too valuable for her to use it in the laminator now. When the riced potatoes had cooled to room temperature she added the egg and flour and quickly stirred with a wooden spoon, soon she had the dough on the table and was showing me how to form the gnocchi. She used the back side of a cheese grater to shape the gnocchi (the kind used for zest or hard cheeses, the back should have square holes, see picture) by pressing the dough and rolling it slightly to form the unique shape you see, almost shell-like. Magical! After a few tries I got the idea, but I couldn't keep up with Anna, she has clearly had lots of practice!



Once we had enough gnocchi formed she set the water to boil and put some of her sugo -tomato sauce on the burner "Non comprare" she said shaking her finger at me as she showed me the bottle of preserved tomatoes she'd put up...of course she makes her own sauce! When the gnocchi was al dente, she fished them out and coated them with sauce. She then flipped over the grater and grated some hard cheese over the dish, perfetto.



Grazie Anna!



For Anna's gnocchi recipe below you'll need a cheese grater, large pot, mixing bowl, wooden spoon and work table or large cutting board for rolling the dough.



ANNA'S POTATO GNOCCHI

INGREDIENTS
4 or 5 potatoes, peeled and chopped into wedges. Boiled until soft.<li class="ingredient" style="border: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; word-wrap: break-word; font-size: inherit; text-align: left; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; line-height: inherit; list-style-type: none;">1 egg1 lb or so of flourFor serving:Red sauceGrana Padano or other Italian cheese for grating



INSTRUCTIONS
<ul id="zlrecipe-instructions-list" class="instructions" style="border: 0px; margin-right: 0.5em; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0.5em; padding: 0px 0px 0px 2.4em; vertical-align: baseline; word-wrap: break-word; font-size: inherit; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; list-style: none; color:� -webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(26, 26, 26, 0.301961); -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;">Boil the potatoes until soft, drain and run through a ricer.Let the riced potatoes cool in a large mixing bowl to room temperature before proceeding.Add the egg and flour to the riced potato and stir with a wooden spoon. The dough will be very firm and hard to stir, at this point dump it out onto a floured board and work it together with your hands, kneaded and pushing the dough into a log about 12" long. If the dough is sticky at all, add more flour. The dough should be firm but pliable. Cut off about 1/4 of the dough and roll this smaller chunk into a long snake until it is about an inch wide. Cut into 1" chunks and toss with a little more flour. Now it's time to form the gnocci. Using the back of a cheese grater roll each dough ball over the surface imprinting the grater design and creating a hollow, almost shell like shape, see photos. Place each gnocci on a lightly floured surface. Continue in this way until all the gnoccis are formed. Bring a pot of water to a boil, adding three very large pinches of salt to the water. Add the gnocci and stir once, making sure they do not stick together. Once the gnocci float, keep your eye on them, it should only take a couple minutes before they are done. Pull out one and test it by cutting it open and tasting it. When it is ready it will be chewy still, but should not taste like flour. Carefully scoop them out with a slotted spoon. To serve, spoon over a little tomato sauce and stir so that all the gnocci are covered thinly. Grate some hard cheese over the top and enjoy!

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