Knidle or Gnocchi
Depends upon whether you are Polish or Italian
If you are making mashed potatoes for dinner, make a bunch of extra potatoes to make these later in the week. They mix up really fast when you have the potatoes done. Or make several batches at a convenient time and freeze them. After they are drained, spread them out on pans and freeze them till they are solid enough to keep from sticking together in a bag. Then load them into zip-lock bags for the freezer. You’ll be able to remove what you need for dinner and refresh them in boiling water for about five minutes or fry them from the frozen state in butter, margarine or olive oil. They are also good with spaghetti sauce and parmesan or warmed in lots of butter and sprinkled with lots of parmesan (the way the northern Italians do it).
3 cups mashed potatoes (made as usual for dinner)
1 teaspoon salt (even though the mashed potatoes are salted, you are adding lots of flour)
2 eggs
1 teaspoon baking powder
3 cups all-purpose flour
Combine potatoes, salt, and eggs in mixer bowl. Beat till well combined. Using dough hook, add the baking powder and 3 cups of flour. This makes a softer dough. I like it this way, but, if it seems too loose to you, add a little more flour. Just remember, 4 cups, total, is the maximum. Remember, too, that you will be rolling the dough into ropes on a well floured surface, so don’t go crazy with the flour at this point.
Spread out some clean dish towels and sprinkle them with flour. Or simply sprinkle flour on one or two jelly roll pans. These will be for the cut kindle. These don’t take long to cook so I find that it’s much easier, if I’m working alone, to cut a bunch of the dumplings before I start to cook them. Put a large pot of water on the stove to boil just as you would for pasta or pierogi. I cook mine in salted water, but you can do whatever you like.
Cut off a handful of dough and put it on a well floured surface. Using the palms of your hands, roll the dough into a rope about one-half inch in diameter. (Remember, these will grow when they cook.) Cut the rope into pieces around one-half to three-fourths of an inch long. (Trust me, you will get pretty quick with this process the more you make these.) Sprinkle the cut pieces with flour put them on the floured dish towels or pans.
When the towels or pans are full, start cooking, in batches that will allow the dumplings to cook freely in your pot. Cook for 7 minutes. Remove with a slotted spoon. Toss with a little butter or margarine. Even with the butter, they will stick together a bit as they cool, so don’t worry that you did something wrong.
Polish people eat these fried in butter with breadcrumbs and topped with sour cream. Northern Italians eat them with loads of butter and parmesan cheese. Southern Italians have them with spaghetti sauce. You can eat them any way you like.