Freeze-Ahead Gnocchi

Preheat oven to 200°C (400°F). Wash, dry and pierce the skin of the potatoes all over with a fork. You want as much liquid to escape from the potatoes as possible. Place in the middle of the oven.

Depending on the size of the potatoes, cook for 1 to 1 1/2 hours. Check every now and again if they are done by piercing with a fork.

Remove potatoes from oven and slice in half. Using a clean tea towel to protect your hands from the heat, scoop the middle of the potatoes out and push through a potato ricer. I believe you can mash them although I haven’t tried that.

Spread the potatoes out on a clean work surface to steam so more moisture is evaporating from them. This step is most effective if you can do this and the previous step as quickly as possible (while they are still super hot).

After a few minutes, once there is no more steam, dust the flour over the top of the potatoes. Lightly grind some salt over the top. Make a well in the middle and place half of the whisked egg yolk in the middle.
Fold the mixture inwards with your hands and lightly knead it together. Only fold it as much as is needed to get to a smooth consistency and no more. We are talking 6-8 folds inwards maximum.

Dust surface with more flour if needed. Take a lemon-sized piece of the dough and roll it out into a sausage shape with your hands. Take a knife (or pastry cutter) and cut roughly 2cm pieces along the sausage. They should roughly resemble cute little pillows with each cut. If desired, you can use the back of a fork to create indentations on them to give that beautiful grooved look.

If you are going to freeze some or all of the gnocchi, dust a freezer proof plate or baking tray with flour and place in the freezer for at least 1–2 hours. Remove and then portion into freezer bags.

When you are ready to cook, bring a pan of well salted water to the boil. Drop the gnocchi into the water. If you are cooking from fresh then they should start to float after a couple of minutes. If you are cooking from frozen this will take a little longer.

When the gnocchi is floating then remove from the pan—you can either top straight away with sauce or lightly sauté to give a crispier edge to them (which I personally recommend). Tuck in!