Martha Stewart Shares the Secret to Her 'Light-as-Air' Gnocchi & It's Surprisingly Easy

Diet & Food

There is something about making any homemade pasta recipe that takes me back to those elementary school days when we would play with Play-Doh — except instead of fake neon-colored “noodles” now it’s real, delicious dough that will be transformed into a real, delicious Italian dish. Homemade pasta can be daunting, but we promise this one is worth the effort — and there’s no fancy pasta contraption required. Martha Stewart shared the secrets to her “light as air” potato-ricotta gnocchi recipe and they’re surprisingly simple.

Stewart shared the recipe with followers writing, “similar to dumplings but most often treated like pasta, potato gnocchi is a dish that’s simple to make from scratch, but achieving light-as-air results require a few secrets.” So what exactly are the secrets? Using russet potatoes, adding some ricotta cheese into the dough, and baking the potatoes instead of boiling them. Also: using a ricer or food mill instead of a potato masher. The result is gnocchi that boasts a desirably fluffy texture.

This recipe does require some time — 30 minutes to prep, and just under 2 hours total — but the ingredients list is seriously simple. Just five ingredients (potatoes, ricotta, flour, salt, and nutmeg) are needed to make this gnocchi. I don’t know about you, but setting aside two hours to make a delicious homemade Italian dish sounds totally worth it to us. Plus, the shaped gnocchi can be frozen and then cooked straight from the freezer.

Check out Martha Stewart’s Potato-Ricotta Gnocchi Recipe online and in the March 2021 issue of Martha Stewart Living.

Our mission at SheKnows is to empower and inspire women, and we only feature products we think you’ll love as much as we do. Please note that if you purchase something by clicking on a link within this story, we may receive a small commission of the sale.