Gnocchi

From "ThanksVille" on Chowhound:

My grandmother's recipe with loads of practice uses a 2 to 1 mix of old russet potatoes to sweet potatoes (makes for a wonderful 'surprise' in the flavor). Boiled with skin on until just barely tender (check each one individually and don't let them overcook or become sodden)....the sweet potatoes come out way earlier than the russets.

Remove, dry and start peeling them as soon as you can get them into a towel (to help with the handling). Remove skin but also remove any parts that are soaked or soggy. Rice them immediately with a fine potatoe ricer and spread out on a cookie sheet to dry and cool for 15 minutes. Lightly rotate them to help continue drying about halfway through. Season with salt, very fine ground pepper, lightest hint of nutmeg.

Typically for about 5 lbs of potatoes, I use three large egg yolks to help bind together with all purpose flour. The goal is to touch the mixture as little as possible and minimize the amount of flour incorporated therein. Mix with your fingers adding the flour in tablespoon increments (I start with about 1 full cup of flour and add by tablespoons) to reach the right consistency. Once you achieve a dough that is just barely sticky, I begin to work on a floured board to roll the dough out into finger thick strands, cut them to length and go into production shaping them on the backside of a clean dinner fork. After the first couple, you can tell by the quality of the dough curling and taking on the ridged impressions from the tines if you got the texture right.

Each gnocchi is rolled onto a floured cookie pan, making sure they don't touch each other. If freezing them, will dust lightly with flour, quick freeze each tray and after 1/2 hour put them into ziplock bags. But who in their right mind goes to the trouble to make homemade gnocchi and doesn't make a fresh platter for dinner? So one tray or more gets added into a huge kettle (12 quart) of boiling salted water.

Keep them from touching each other and get into the boiling water; stir gently and reduce water to just a simmer. Usually they are light enough to rise to the top within 2 minutes. I cook for about 1 more minute, taste one to make sure there is no raw flour flavor and immediately lift out with a big chinese wire spider strainer and place each batch onto a clean, cotton bar towel to dry the surface water (fold up the ends into one hand and lightly roll them around inside for 15 seconds. (I end up using 4 or 5 towels for a 2 tray batch)

Immediately dump from the towel into the baking dish that has (my nonna's pink sauce; 1 part bechamel with cheese melted into it with 2 parts homemade 'Sunday' red sauce) spread across the bottom. Lightly mix in the gnocchi, cover with grated parmignano and repeat by cooking and adding a second cookie pan portion of gnocchi. That fills up a family size 9 x 12 baking casserole; add more sauce to cover, cheese and a mix in a heavy chiffonade of fresh basil but get most of that inside under the top layer. I bake the dish at 375 for 20 minutes covered with foil (a few steam vent slots) and then 10 minutes uncovered. Serve immediately. Light, delicate, fragrant, transports me back to her kitchen every single time. A perfect gnocchi has no weight, just the slightest texture and dissolves without really chewing.