Homemade Potato Gnocchi are made from scratch with mashed potato, flour and an egg. Gnocchi can be served, covered in a variety of sauces!
I finally decided to make homemade potato gnocchi from scratch after many years of buying them at the grocery store! After finding a recipe online a number of years ago, I finally got around to making them on my own, and they were good!
I love gnocchi and have shared quite a few gnocchi recipes over the years here on this blog. They include Chicken, Parmesan & Spinach Gnocchi, Gnocchi and Broccoli Carbonara, Ham and Cheddar Gnocchi and others.
I love all those recipes (they’re delicious), but my favorite way to enjoy gnocchi has always been Olive Garden Chicken Gnocchi Soup (copycat recipe). YUM!
All of my gnocchi recipes are delicious and were made using purchased gnocchi, so making them from scratch was a good learning experience. So… if you enjoy learning to make foods you normally buy interests you, here’s one way to make homemade potato gnocchi from scratch.
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Prepare The Mashed Potato
NOTE: If you already have leftover mashed potatoes (with no added butter, salt, etc.) then you can skip this step. To make the gnocchi you will need 1 cup of plain mashed potatoes, at room temperature.
To make a cup of mashed potatoes from scratch, boil a LARGE russet potato in water until it is tender and can easily be pierced through with a knife. Once done, remove it from the boiling water.
You can also choose to bake the potato and then proceed once it is tender. I typically just boil it since it is only one big potato (and then I don’t have to heat up the kitchen with the oven). It’s your choice, though!
Remove the peel from the potato and place it in a large mixing bowl. Use an electric mixer to “mash” the potatoes until they become smooth and lump-free.
IMPORTANT: Let the mashed potato cool to room temperature before adding the next 2 ingredients, because you don’t want HOT potatoes to scramble the egg you’re adding!
Add a cup of all-purpose flour and one egg to the room temperature mashed potato. Beat until the egg and flour have been combined fully with the mashed potato.
Make The Gnocchi Dough
Turn the potato mixture out onto a well-floured cutting board or other work surface. The homemade potato gnocchi “dough” will be thick and sticky.
You may find it necessary to add a tiny bit more flour to the dough to make it “less sticky”, because the consistency of mashed potatoes can vary sometimes.
Knead the dough with your hands, adding a bit more flour to the dough a little bit at a time (if necessary) until it forms a “not-too–sticky” ball of dough.
Cut And Shape The Gnocchi
Separate the dough ball into 4 equal portions. One at a time, roll each piece of dough with your hands into a rope shape, about 1″ thick. Use a sharp knife to then cut each dough rope into 1″ pieces of gnocchi.
Gnocchi pieces are typically rolled on a gnocchi roller board. That is a piece of wood with many ridges that create indentations on gnocchi to help sauce adhere to the gnocchi.
If you don’t own a gnocchi roller board (I don’t!), use the tines on the back of a fork to manually add these ridges to each piece of gnocchi (both sides). There are two ways to do this.
The first method is to lightly depress the fork tines on each piece of gnocchi to leave ridges, then flip it over and do the other side. The second method is to roll each piece of gnocchi down the back side of the fork to imprint ridges on each side. It takes a tiny bit of time to do this, but the end result is worth the effort in my opinion.
Place the gnocchi on parchment paper to rest while you bring water to a boil (to cook them). Homemade potato gnocchi may not look as uniform as machine-manufactured ones, but they still taste just as good!
I typically make my homemade gnocchi slightly larger than the kind you find in the store. If you feel the gnocchi pieces are too long and want smaller gnocchi, cut each long piece in half across the middle.
The recipe, as written will yield enough “small” gnocchi for about 4 servings, so if you decide to make them larger, you will have a slightly smaller total amount of gnocchi.
Cook and Serve Homemade Potato Gnocchi
Bring a large saucepan of salted water to a full boil. Add all of the gnocchi to the pan and cook them until they float to the top of the water.
It usually takes 2-3 minutes to cook them all the way through, and they begin to float. Use a slotted spoon to remove the gnocchi as they float to the top.
Serve the homemade potato gnocchi right away while they are steaming hot. Serve them covered in a favorite sauce (browned butter sauce, marinara, etc.).
We Enjoy Gnocchi With A Butter Sage Sauce
Serve gnocchi with your favorite sauce, but if you’re looking for one that goes well with potato gnocchi, perhaps you’d like a browned butter sage sauce! You can make it ahead of time, then very quickly reheat it right before adding the finished gnocchi.
To make it, melt 3 Tablespoons butter on Medium-Low heat in a skillet until it has melted, foamed and has browned (2-3 minutes). Stir in 1/8 of a teaspoon of ground sage, plus a pinch each of salt and black pepper. Stir until combined.
Add the drained, cooked gnocchi to the skillet and stir to cover the gnocchi with the browned butter sauce. Once heated through, transfer the gnocchi and leftover sauce to a serving bowl and serve it immediately while hot.
I hope you have the chance to make homemade potato gnocchi for your family and/or friends. It’s simply another way to use up leftover mashed potatoes and create another yummy dish to be enjoyed!
Thank you for stopping by, and I invite you to come back again soon for more family-friendly recipes. Take care, may God bless you and have a wonderful day.
Looking For More POTATO Recipes?
You can find ALL of my recipes in the Recipe Index, which is located at the top of the page. I have a variety of delicious potato recipes you can check out, including:
- Garlic Butter Red Potatoes
- Air Fryer Crispy Mini Potatoes
- Duchess Potatoes
- Candied Sweet Potatoes
- Cheesy Skillet Potatoes
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Original recipe source and with thanks to: https://www.justataste.com/leftover-mashed-potato-gnocchi-recipe/
↓↓ PRINTABLE RECIPE BELOW ↓↓
Homemade Potato Gnocchi are made from scratch with mashed potato, flour and an egg. Gnocchi can be served, covered in a variety of sauces!
- 1 cup leftover mashed potatoes (approx. 1 large russet) (no butter, milk, etc.)- room temp.
- 1 cup all-purpose flour + more, as needed
- 1 large egg
SEE NOTE #1 BELOW if using leftover mashed potatoes. If making mashed potato from scratch, boil a LARGE russet potato in water until tender and easily pierced through with a knife. Remove potato from pan. You can also bake the potato and then proceed once tender. Remove/discard potato peel; put potato in mixing bowl. Use electric mixer to "mash" the potato until smooth/lump-free. IMPORTANT: Let mashed potato cool to room temp. before adding egg/flour, so the HOT potato doesn't scramble the egg!
Add flour and egg to room temp. mashed potato. Beat until combined, and dough is thick and sticky. Turn potato mixture out onto a well-floured work surface. Knead the dough with your hands, adding a bit more flour to the dough a little bit at a time (if necessary) until it forms a "not-too-sticky" dough ball.
Separate the dough ball into 4 equal portions. Roll each piece of dough into a rope shape, about 1" thick. Cut each dough rope into 1" pieces of gnocchi.
Use a gnocchi roller board OR use the tines on the back of a fork to add ridges to each piece of gnocchi (both sides). You can use a fork in 2 different ways: 1) Lightly depress the fork tines on both sides of each piece to leave ridges. 2) Roll each piece on the back side of the fork tines to imprint ridges on each side.
Bring a large pan of salted water to a full boil. Add the gnocchi to the boiling water; cook 2-3 minutes, or until they float to the top. Use a slotted spoon to remove the gnocchi once they've floated to the top.
Serve homemade potato gnocchi right away while hot, covered in a favorite sauce (browned butter sauce, marinara sauce, etc.). Enjoy!
NOTE #1: If you already have 1 cup of leftover mashed potatoes (at room temperature and with no butter or milk added), skip the first step and proceed with the addition of egg and flour.
NOTE #2: Caloric calculation was made using the 3 gnocchi ingredients only. Sauce was not added to the calculation as a variety of sauces may be used.
Here’s one more to pin on your Pinterest boards!