Quick and Easy to Make Gnocchi With Leftover Mashed Potatoes
The overwhelming beauty of mashed potatoes is fleeting: you should eat as much as you can while it’s hot, knowing that any leftovers just won’t suffer as much. This is why it is best to use leftover potatoes to turn them into something completely different, like waffles , sauces, and dumplings .
I love making dumplings from dirty bags with dumpling wrappers and leftover mashed potatoes, but today I’m talking about a different kind of potato dumplings: gnocchi. Okay, admittedly, these aren’t exactly dumplings – they’re closest to hoof, Polish potato dumplings made with fresh or leftover mashed potatoes – but the vibe is similar. You mix cold mashed potatoes with egg and flour, cut the resulting dough into dumpling-sized pieces and cook. It’s like making gnocchi, but simpler and arguably tastier: the cold mash makes the dough surprisingly easy to handle, and all these dairy products make the dumplings more tender and flavorful. (This also means they’re not as airy and soft as really good gnocchi, but it’s a fair tradeoff for adding butter and cream to dumplings.)
To prepare them, first bring a saucepan of salted water to a boil. For every two cups of cold mashed potatoes, add one egg and one cup all-purpose flour and stir gently. Sprinkle a generous amount of flour on a cutting board, turn the dough over and form it into a log (or logs) about an inch wide. Cut into pieces, large or small, and cook the dumplings until they float, about 3-5 minutes. Drain and serve immediately with a little oil or fry in a skillet until crispy with selected fat. Any dumplings that you don’t eat right away are great candidates for deep fat frying .
These plump little gnocchi-like chunks are exceptionally versatile, making them the perfect base for all kinds of Thanksgiving leftovers. Fry them in a skillet with turkey and filling – and top with the sauce – for a savory flavor, or serve sweet with butter, cinnamon sugar and a spoonful of cranberry sauce. In all fairness, they handle so much cooking so well that you’ll run out of potatoes before you run out of your dumpling options. If this year you find that there is more leftover food than usual, at least the potatoes will be taken care of.