The gnocchi are fabulous and fairly easy.
Gnocchi: I followed the recipe exactly, including whipping the fourth egg white and folding it into the batter. When I made the first batch, they were too big (about a full teaspoon) so I cut them in half and threw them back in the boiling water to finish cooking. They were also sloppy around the edges. For the remainder, I used about 1/2 teaspoon and moved them back and forth between two spoons to try to shape them like a quenelle. This worked pretty well (though next time I'll try the pastry bag technique described in the Q & A). There were enough gnocchi to tightly fill the bottom of two pie pans (I froze one).
Bechamel: I was nervous about this one... and rightfully so. I must have not done the roux correctly because it looked like very watery oatmeal. I moved it to a metal pot (My Le Creuset pots don't like metal) and tried to whisk out the lumps to no avail though the sauce was nice and thick. Finally strained it back into the Le Creuset pot which was awfully heavy to hold up with one hand over the pie plate to pour out the sauce.
I did find that there was too much butter on the top so next time I'll only put about 1/3 as much.
The gnocchi were very light, the sauce was thick and cheesy. A very satisfying dish. I'm looking forward to seeing if the frozen ones cook up as well.
For more info on French Fridays with Dorie or to read the hints and see the pictures of other FFwD participants, go here.
The frozen gnocchi were fine. We used them in an invented casserole type dish. They were still light and fluffy. (I froze them on a buttered pie plate.)
ReplyDelete