Since moving to Jakarta, the first food event I attended was an Italian Cooking class live via Skype with an Italian Nonna in Ancona, go figure! Dina Scataglini is the Nonna of a friend in my Indonesian Language class, Cecilia. Together with her husband Alessandro and the Italian Institute of Culture in Jakarta they will be putting on a series of cooking classes to teach Italian cuisine and lifestyle to locals and expats. Cecilia’s Nonna has kindly shared her special recipe with us along with the sugo to go with it: a simple but extremely tasty dish that is a staple in most Italian kitchens. Enjoy! JC x
P.s – I have also included some photos from the class as we made the gnocchi!
POTATO GNOCCHI with Tomato Sugo
Serves 4
By Dina Scataglini, Ancona, Italy
1 kg of potatoes
00 Flour
1 egg
Salt
Nutmeg powder
Wash the potatoes (skin on) and bring to the boil.
Once the potato skins start to break, remove them from the water, peel away the skins and mash them until smooth, there should be no bumps. Set the potatoes aside until they have completely cooled. Keep the boiled potato water on the stove (but turn off the heat).
Add the egg, a pinch of salt and nutmeg to the mashed potato, along with gradual sprinkles of flour. Bit by bit keep kneading the mixture and adding flour until you achieve a consistency that is soft but not sticky.
Shape the mixture into a small bread loaf shape and cut into thin strips.
Roll each strip into thin logs about a thumb’s width (you may need to lightly dust with flour) and cut into 1-2 cm pieces. Once all gnocchi have been made, separate them and bring the potato water to boil again.
Now for the tomato sauce (sugo)!
Tomato and Basil Sugo
1 bottle of Tomato Passata
A bunch of fresh basil
EVOO
Salt
1 brown onion
Dice the onion and fry with a splash of EVOO until golden. Add the passata, salt and tear a few fresh basil leaves onto the sauce.
Bring to boil. Once the sugo starts to reduce and looks creamy it will be ready.
Throw the gnocchi into the potato water.
Once they start rising to the surface, remove them and begin to strain.
Carefully mix the gnocchi and sugo together, and add the remaining fresh basil – again tearing the leaves. Add a drizzle of olive oil and the gnocchi will be ready to eat. Buon Appetito!
