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Recipe BookGnocchi

Classic Potato Gnocchi

Gnocchi di patate

Chef Paul's dry-baked potato gnocchi ratio, built for a light, tender result.

Chef Paul's plated gnocchi alla Sorrentina
Gnocchi from Chef Paul's archive. The photograph shows a finished gnocchi dish; the method below is the classic potato dough.

The potatoes are baked rather than boiled so the flesh takes on as little extra water as possible. The dough is mixed while the potato is warm, handled minimally and given only the flour it needs.

House ratio based on 1 kg raw floury potatoes; portion after a test cook · Preparation 35 min · Cooking 1 hr 15 min

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Ingredients

House dough ratio

  • Floury potatoes, whole, unpeeled; dry baking variety1 kg
  • Cake flour, plus only what is needed for the bench200 g
  • Egg yolk, weighed40 g
  • Fine salt10 g
  • Fresh nutmega light grating, optional

Method

Cook and dry the potato

  1. Bake the whole potatoes at 180°C for 60 to 75 minutes, until completely tender. Do not boil them for this house method.

  2. Split and peel while hot, then pass the flesh through a potato ricer onto a wide tray or clean bench.

  3. Spread loosely and let steam escape for about 5 minutes. Work while the potato is warm, not cold and not steaming wet.

Make and shape

  1. Scatter the salt and optional nutmeg over the potato, add the yolk and most of the flour.

  2. Fold and press gently just until the dough comes together. Add the remaining flour only as needed. Do not knead it like bread.

  3. Divide into pieces, roll into ropes about 2 cm thick and cut into even 2 cm pillows. Ridge on a gnocchi board or fork if desired.

  4. Cook a test gnocco before shaping the full batch. If it breaks apart, correct the remaining dough with the smallest possible amount of flour.

Cook

  1. Cook in gently boiling well-salted water without overcrowding the pot.

  2. When the gnocchi rise to the surface, give them about 30 seconds more, then lift with a spider directly into the finishing sauce.

Chef’s notes

  • The house ratio is 4 kg potato, 800 g flour, 160 g yolk and 40 g salt, given here for a 1 kg potato batch.
  • The old archive also claimed an approximately 2.6 kg yield from the larger formula. That figure is not retained because it does not reconcile with the listed ingredient mass.
  • Potato moisture varies. The test gnocco is more useful than blindly adding every gram of flour.

Allergens and diet

Gluten. Eggs.

Last refined · October 2026