Homemade purple potato gnocchi (eggless)

The intense chirping of cicadas underscores the heat.
How long has it been since I last shared a recipe on the blog?
It’s been a few months.

As I knead the purple potato gnocchi dough, I can’t help but think about how quickly these past few months have gone by.

Now I will tell you why I’ve been away so long. My idea was to post one last recipe, ricotta and parsley tortelloni Bolognese, take a few weeks, and return to the blog to share the news.

The truth is I underestimated the fatigue and overestimated my strength.

From May to the present, I have organized a move, remodeled my house, and moved again to return furniture, clothes, and belongings. Before all this, I spent months emptying closets and drawers and filling boxes.

The day I took down the curtains, I thought, this is it.

Before the renovation began, I walked through the empty rooms, feeling both tired and happy to start what my husband and I had been planning for at least two years.

The artisans started their work in late May and have almost finished. There is still something to make, but in the meantime, we have already scheduled the return home of the household goods that survived my decluttering rampage. So, while waiting to sort out the final details, I will spend August emptying boxes and sorting things out. If I’m lucky, I can rest for a few days.

Now you know there was a valid reason for my absence.
Anyway, after surviving the move physically and emotionally, I began the renovation. I built the new kitchen based on my design. I no longer count the miles I drove looking for materials or the hours of labor to assemble furniture, sand, and do other things.

If the cooking project interests you, I wrote about it in Food Notes from Bologna, my newsletter (you can read it without subscribing, but if you support my job by subscribing to it, thank you):

• My new kitchen: the project
• My new kitchen takes shape

These hot, busy, and tiring days have left little room for cooking and even less time to take photographs. Without it, I chased for weeks, then months, for the inspiration to choose a recipe to return to the blog.

Then, it suddenly came while I was making purple potato gnocchi.
I thought this was the right recipe for the blog, and soon after placing the purple potato gnocchi on the semolina-floured tray, I felt an urgent need to write.
Before the recipe, I want to share one more thing.

Nora House, where I currently live

Always covered in dust like an antique, beleaguered by the questions the renovation artisans ask, expecting sensible answers, I searched for a weekly moment that would rejuvenate me.

And since I love to buy food as locally as possible directly from producers, I found it at the farmer’s market in Castenaso, a small town on the outskirts of Bologna, where Casa Nora is located.

It is an old early-twentieth-century house located a few kilometers from Bologna’s center. After serving as a private residence for over a hundred years, it has changed use, becoming a room and breakfast, and now a law firm where I live temporarily, sharing space with lawyers and clients during the day.
It’s funny; despite my years away at university, I had never had lawyers as housemates.

Nora was Eleonora Putti.

Her father left her this house, originally a tower later incorporated into the dwelling. When she married Corrado Ungarelli, the dwelling, which bears her name on the side columns of the entrance gate, Villino Eleonora, became the family home until the last descendant decided that, since she had no children, the house should revert to the Putti family, that is, my husband’s family.

We take care of it, custodians of a place where the old happiness that reigned here still reigns.

When we turned the house into an R&B a few years ago, many village elders stopped me to tell me they remembered Mrs. Nora because she was a good person. She always had some candy that she fished from her skirt or overcoat pockets.

I have mentioned Casa Nora many times on the blog but had never told who Nora-Eleonora was.

The farmer’s market and purple potato gnocchi

I was talking about the Castenaso farmers’ market. It is very genuine; the farmers are from the area and practice sustainable agriculture. I finally found zucchini with real flavor, carrots with an almost balsamic taste, small cherry tomatoes, and the season’s first potatoes.
You may not know that Bologna is devoted to growing potatoes, so much so that the Patata di Bologna variety is a POD.
At the end of July, the first harvest comes in. Because only a few hours pass from harvest to the market stall, they taste as earthy and intense as I like.

At the market, I also found purple ones.
Purple potatoes originated in South America but have been grown in Europe for centuries. Due to their unique color and health benefits, they are popular, especially in France and Italy.

AAnd although a small, delightful purple potato variety is typical of the Bolognese mountains, I cannot tell you how surprised I was to find a kind of Italian vitelotte grown by a lowland farmer.

Vitelotte Noir differs from the Italian ones in size and skin thickness; the Italian ones are larger and have thinner skin.

The Italian variety of purple potato resembles the yellow ones, but differs only in color.

I topped the purple potato gnocchi with a quick, to-be-prepared stracchino cheese fondue flavored with grated lemon zest and sprinkled with chives at the end. You can either arrange the sauce on the bottom of the plate and lay the gnocchi on top or stir in the pan.

As you can see in the photos, I’ve done both, so you can see these gnocchi hold up well, and you can stir them into the sauce without fear of breaking.

Potato gnocchi is a wonderful Italian classic. If you like regular gnocchi, you will love the pop of color and taste of these purple potato gnocchi.

Buona cucina, Monica

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Homemade purple potato gnocchi

Purple potato gnocchi is a homemade and vegan Italian recipe

Course First Course, Fresh pasta

Cuisine Italian

Keyword Purple potato gnocchi

Prep Time 1 hour hour

Cook Time 5 minutes minutes

Servings 4 servings

Equipment

• potato ricer

Ingredients

• 500 g of boiled purple potatoes with the skin
• 200 g of 00 or 0 flour

Instructions

• After boiling the potatoes in salted water with the skins on until tender, let them cool for half an hour, then peel, cut in half, and mash with a potato masher directly on the work surface.
• Add the flour and begin kneading until you have a soft dough that isn’t too sticky. If it’s too sticky, work the dough quickly without adding more flour to keep it from getting tough.
• Using a knife or a pasta cutter, divide the dough into 5 or 6 pieces.
• Dust the work surface with flour and, one piece at a time, use your palms to shape the dough into rolls about 1.5 or 2 cm in diameter.
• From each roll, cut gnocchi about 1 cm long, or whatever size you prefer, and arrange them on a semolina-dusted tray.
• Cook in boiling, salted water until they float to the surface, then taste one; if it's soft inside, remove with a slotted spoon and add to the sauce pan or place directly on the plate over the stracchino fondue.

Food Tips

• Cook the potatoes with their skins on, starting with cold water. They’ll stay firmer that way.
• Store the gnocchi in the refrigerator for two days or in the freezer for one month.
• If you salt the cooking water, there’s no need to add salt to the gnocchi dough.