Gniocchi

As my work colleagues are very well aware of, I have an overly present disdain for consuming leftovers. Eating the same dish twice? Life is just too short.

Making a completely new dish out of a past meal is a completely different matter though. And this is where these pillow-y dumplings come to play...

I guess you could also make fish cakes or so out of leftover mashed potatoes... But these gniocchi are far more elegant...

Start out with a one portion amount of leftover mashed potatoes. Add an egg, about 50 gr. of semolina and however much plain flour is needed to make a pliable, non sticky dough. I can't really tell you how much that will be, as it mostly depends on how high the liquid content of your mash is... I can tell you, that it will be more flour than you anticipated. :-) Therefore my recommendation that you start out with only one portion of mash. I'm sure I used at least one and a half cups of flour...

When you have a dough let it rest and cool in the fridge for about 20 minutes.
Take it out, squeeze off one lump and form it into a roll of about a centimeters diagonal. cut off small peaces of that and "roll" it with a fork. Dipping the fork and knife into flour from time to time will prevent the dough from sticking.
And continue until done.


These gniocchi freeze very well. Space them evenly on parchment paper (multiple layers are fine), freeze and fill into a bag to store.

When your feeling hungry, boil water and add salt. Pour the desired portion of gniocchi into the boiling water, pull it off the heat and let it stand covered for two to three minutes.

Topped with sage and lemon butter this is a delicious and somewhat special pasta dinner. (Melt the butter, add the sage. When crispy add the lemon zest, a good pinch of salt and a squeeze of the juice.)