Perfect Potato Gnocchi

There's nothing I cherish more than the combination of good food and family. Keeping this in mind, you can only imagine how excited I was to have my brother visit from Toronto! My brother Tristan is quite simply- amazing. He's brilliant, funny, artistic and shares my obsession with food. I know he's a big fan of gnocchi so I thought we could make some and serve it with oxtail ragu. It was delicious and he had about three proper servings!

I have tried MANY gnocchi recipes- ricotta gnocchi, boiled potato gnocchi, roasted potato gnocchi etc and no recipe tastes as good as this! It's light and pillowy yet maintains a certain level of density that we look for in a gnocchi. If you love this little potato dumpling as much as I do I urge you to make it! It's deceptively easy and doesn't require too much skill.

Ingredients:
2 pounds russet potato
1/2 cup freshly grated parm cheese
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 and 1/4 cup flour
4 egg yolks

Method:
Pierce potatoes with a fork and bake in a 400 degree oven for 1 hour or until cooked (as you would a baked potato).

Remove potato from skin and place in a ricer. When complete, on a clean surface, make a mound of potatoes and make a well in the center. Dust your hands with some flour. Add the eggs and cheese to the well and mix until just encorporated. Add the flour 1/4 cup at a time, kneading until you get a smooth dense ball. You may or may not use all the flour. You want it to be firm yet soft and not dry....use your intuition. Cut the dough into eights, roll between your hands so it makes a long rope that is about 3/4 inch thick. Cut into bite size pieces and either boil in salted water or place on a tray lined with parchment paper and sprinkled with flour and refrigerate until needed. Make sure that when you refrigerate your gnocchi is completely covered in plastic wrap so it doesn't dry.