Gnocchi

Yesterday, quite by chance, I spent a good while in the charming village of Przywidz. It is not far from the sea, about 40 km from the Tricity. Beautifully situated in a little valley, with a moraine lake and lovely scenery. And for almost mid-November, the weather was incredible. 18 degrees Celsius? WTF!

How I ended up there is completely irrelevant, but what matters is that I had almost 1.5 hours for a walk. Enough time to realise how charming the place is, but certainly not enough to experience all its attractions. And for somewhere almost on the coast, they are quite unusual.

Besides a beach (on the lake, not the sea), Przywidz has a ski slope. Apparently the longest near the Polish coast. A ski slope by the sea. In Poland. Admittedly, at 18 degrees and in the middle of an exceptionally beautiful Polish autumn, there is no point turning up with skis. Even seen like this, the slope looks quite decent.

There is also a park and recreation complex, beautifully renovated with EU money (as the huge boards on every corner inform us: the standard Polish way of telling us what the EU has given us). A horse stud, a hotel and the slopes are part of the complex.

There is another place that particularly caught our attention. The Pierogarnia, a pierogi restaurant.

The truth is that in November, Przywidz is the arse end of nowhere. Let’s not kid ourselves. Empty. The ski lift is not running. You cannot swim in the lake. Cycling around the lake is not particularly pleasant either. After all, nobody could expect a rainy, dreary November day to be as lovely as yesterday. But Przywidz does have the Pierogarnia.

Sir, the restaurant is only open at weekends. You know how it is — who would come here on an ordinary weekday…

That is what I heard when I asked about the restaurant in the beautifully restored old manor house (at least, that is what it looks like). But the Pierogarnia is open every day. Yes, I know, pierogi are not the gnocchi this recipe is about. But really, if you took the filling out of pierogi, then, well. Dough there, dough here. Or the other way round; I have lost track.

Anyway, the Pierogarnia serves good pierogi (thin dough generously packed with dough, out of respect for the customer), though not cheap for such a godforsaken backwater. But there are pierogi with black pudding, for example, or goose (served with cranberry sauce), sweet pumpkin or salmon. I had half a portion with meat, one with black pudding and half a portion with goose. Unfortunately, they had been waiting for us a little while and were no longer warm enough. They looked like this:

We ate, and it was time to leave Przywidz. I liked it, and I think that one day, on my way to the Tricity, I will take a detour to visit again. Look at their lovely Village Department Store — Wiejski Dom Handlowy 🙂

An exceptionally charming place.

I am writing all this because I think it was the visit to the Pierogarnia that put me in the mood for today’s gnocchi, or rather the duck (after that goose). True, gnocchi are much easier to make than pierogi. But add a special duck breast with a sauce as interesting as the selection of pierogi in Przywidz, and the result might be even better. Especially since everything will be hot?

I recommend making your own gnocchi. I have bought them in shops before, but I do not eat such heavy dishes too often (I try not to, although I have just written about pierogi, so nobody will believe me ;). So perhaps it is better to make the effort now and then and prepare them yourself than to risk the shop-bought ones (there is always some risk, isn’t there?). Highly recommended.

At a glance:

Preparation time: 2.5 hours

Serves: 3 – 4 portions

How many calories: potatoes, flour, an egg — work out for yourself how many calories that might have

Ingredients for the Italian version of kopytka:

• 7 medium potatoes
• 300 – 350 grams of wheat flour
• 1 hen’s egg
• salt
• ground black pepper
• a few strands of saffron

Recipe for homemade gnocchi:

Making homemade Italian gnocchi is exceptionally simple, but unfortunately takes a long time. The actual work does not take much time, but baking the potatoes and then chilling the dough does. Two hours altogether. But let’s start at the beginning…

1. I put the potatoes in their skins (just washed and dried) in a little basket made from aluminium foil and placed them in the oven set to 180 degrees Celsius. I baked the potatoes for exactly 1.5 hours. I took them out and let them cool.

2. While the potatoes were still warm but no longer too hot to handle, I peeled them and grated them into a bowl. I added the flour and egg. I seasoned them with a pinch of salt and ground black pepper. I also added a few strands of saffron. I mixed thoroughly with a spoon.

3. I transferred the mixture to the worktop and kneaded it into a soft dough. It must not be sticky, so if it sticks, add more flour.

4. I shaped the dough into a ball and put it in a bowl. I covered it with aluminium foil and placed it in the fridge for 30 minutes.

5. Once the dough had chilled, I cut the ball in half and used my hands to shape two ropes, 2 cm in diameter. I flattened them slightly (as you can see in the pictures below) and cut them with a knife into evenly sized gnocchi. Mine basically look like kopytka, but taste a little different.

6. I poured water into a large pot and added half a tablespoon of salt and half a tablespoon of olive oil. I brought the water to the boil and dropped in the prepared gnocchi. I cooked them until they floated to the surface, then lifted them out with a slotted spoon.

The Italian gnocchi are ready. Enjoy.