In A Professional Kitchen: Gnocchi Making Class

Chef Sousa in action

I was super excited to go to the gnocchi making cooking class at Trio Restaurant (http://www.trio-ri.com/)  in Narragansett, RI this week. Darci and I have been to a few of the cooking classes there and they are so much fun! For $20 you get a glass of wine and a great class (with samples of course.) Past classes have included: pie making, pizza making, ravioli making, and what I think was the best so far, gnocchi.


Maybe I am partial. #1 I love Pasta. #2 I love gnocchi even more than regular pasta. There is something about these light, pillows of goodness that melt on your tongue. I always order these at Italian restaurants, but have never attempted to make them myself. Now was my chance. And after going to this class I feel confident to do it!

For this class Sous Chef Sousa showed us how to make the gnocchi dough, the rolling technique, and different sauces you can pair with the pillows of goodness. For the class, we made sweet potato gnocchi (I KNOW) and roasted garlic (EVEN MORE EXCITING.) He made the dough in a kitchen aid mixer, which made me feel more confident that I could actually do this at home. Toby and I made fresh pasta last month and the dough part was kind of hard. Since gnocchi is primarily potatoes that have been put through a food mill it is ok to make the dough in a mixer. Chef Sousa also let us know the amount of  flour ( preferably durham, but all purpose works too) depends on the potatoes you use. In case you were wondering, let me hit you with this fact. Sweet potatoes hold more water, so use more flour. Basically the dough should be tacky, but not wet. So you really have to go by texture. Use those hands!

Once your dough is formed to your liking, take it out of the mixer. Cut off small balls to roll out into a tube shape. The actual rolling of the tube shape is an art form. Chef Sousa let us know you need to not use too much force and only try to roll out the tube on the forward motion. Do not roll on the backward. Who knew? Worked like a charm though.You then cut them in a swift motion as small or large as you like them. I liked this part. 

So I will leave you with the pictures of the gnocchi we cooked up. The sweet potato gnocchi were paired with a brown butter and sage sauce and the roasted garlic were paired with an arugula pesto. AMAZING.
**All I have is a hard copy of the recipes so if you do want it leave a comment and I will scan it and send it to you!**

As if the gnocchi we tried were not enough, we stayed for dinner and split the best dish

on their menu : Lobster tortoloni ( OMG.) Let’s just look over the description for this dish.

“Truffle pasta, steamed native lobster, limoncello cream.” Seriously? Heaven on a plate.

What an amazing night filled with carbs and cream. Is there anything better? Are there any cooking classes you have taken and loved?