Cooking Lesson #656: Potato, Patato, Quick & Easy Potato Gnocchi

…from the Perspectives’ Kitchen

How you doin’? You can’t have a great fried chicken or roast beef dinner without mashed potatoes and gravy (well you can, but it won’t be as enjoyable). But many don’t want to go through the effort of washing peeling, cubing and boiling potatoes and then mashing and mixing them with butter, milk and seasoning. It’s a little bit of an effort but it’s not like you have to boil them over wood-burning stove.
 
It may have been that way during World War II when making mashed spuds consisted of peeling pounds and pounds of potatoes. People started to look for short cuts in all kinds of cooking process—the dumbing down of American cooking.
 
In the early 1950s, the R.T. French Company—French’s  created mashed potato granules. These flash-dried mashed potatoes became the major instant hit product in stores until the early 1960s. Then, a Canadian food scientist, Edward Asselbergs, created a different process for preserving potatoes. That method resulted in potato flakes, which soon dominated store shelves. The potato flakes broke down in liquid more easily, providing a smoother, richer finished product than granules. Potato granules are still made by some companies, but Asselbergs’ invention has so far proven to be the lasting one.
 
Potato flakes were invented in hopes of making foods that could be easily fortified with protein. With this process those potato flakes could be shipped to regions where people were suffering from malnutrition. This invention also could easily be used by soldiers, or even by those who might need quick food in other scenarios, like camping. A low cost military solution that could keep soldiers out of the kitchen and out on the battlefield was a hit on the home front, too.
 
Today, instant potato flakes are a cheap, convenient comfort food. And while they might not be used as much today to stave off famine, they can still round out a filling, delicious meal without breaking the bank.
 
But there is more to instant potatoes than running them out of an instant hot dispenser at KFC. When doing recipe extensions for Basic American Foods, we developed over a hundred recipes in hopes of making their products more easy to use as a popular ingredient for other recipes such as Baked Potato Soup, Potato Chocolate Cake, Crispy Fish Fillets, Cornbread, Crispy Baked Chicken (almost as good as fried), Irish Colcannon, White Bread, Pierogi and Shepherd's Pie.
 
Today there are hundreds of ways to use instant mashed potatoes to improve your favorite recipes. I developed a new crust for Pizza Hut with added instant mashed potatoes in the dough. It created a remarkable texture to the crust, and now instant mashed potatoes are an ingredient in my personal go-to pizza dough.
 
Instant potatoes are also great for thickening soups and gravies, adding as a binding ingredient for meatballs, or making quick homemade gnocchi.
 
                                        Quick & Easy Potato Gnocchi
 An easier version of an Italian favorite, using instant mashed potato flakes. This recipe can easily be doubled or even tripled.
 
Prep time:  10 minutes
Cook time:  5 minutes
Yield:  30 gnocchi
 
Ingredients 
1 cup instant dry potato flakes
1 cup boiling water
1 egg, beaten
1 teaspoon kosher salt
1/8 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
1-1/2 cups all-purpose flour
 
Directions

1. Place the potato flakes in a medium-size bowl. Pour in boiling water; stir until blended; set aside to cool.
2. Stir in the egg, salt and pepper.
3. Blend in enough flour to make a fairly stiff dough.
4. Turn dough out on a well-floured board; knead lightly.
5. Divide the dough in half. Shape each half into a long thin roll, the thickness of a breadstick.
6. With a knife dipped in flour, cut into bite-size pieces and roll with a fork to get the distinctive gnocchi shape.
7. Place a few gnocchi in rapidly boiling water. As the gnocchi rise to the top of the pot, remove them with a slotted spoon.
8. Repeat until all are cooked.
9. Serve with your favorite spaghetti sauce.

ChefSecret:  Gnocchi can be made in multiple batches; freeze the extras. To freeze, put on cookie sheets until frozen, and then store them into plastic bags.

Quip of the Day:  Q. How did the Italian chef like to start his jokes? A. “Gnocchi Gnocchi.”
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To you and everyone dear to you, be strong, be positive, stay well, stay safe and be kind. Take a breath and count your blessings, and if you have a little extra to share with others, please consider donating to Feeding America and/or American Red Cross.
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                                                                                 ©PERSPECTIVES/The Consulting Group, LLC, 2023

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