Method

First, clean the scampi. Peel, remove the heads, & devein. Cut up the flesh into 3 or 4 pieces. Rinse, pat dry with paper towels, & set aside.

To make the tomato sauce, put the tomatoes in a food processor & pulse until quite smooth. Heat the oil in a large skillet, & sauté the onion until it melts & is pale golden but well cooked. Add the garlic &, when you can smell it, add the wine & let it bubble up until it has evaporated & the onion is frying again. Then add the pulsed tomatoes, some salt & pepper, & pepperoncino, & simmer over low heat for about 15 minutes, or until you have a nice loose sauce, not too thick. Add the cream and bubble up for a moment. Keep warm while you make the gnocchi.

To make the gnocchi, cook the potatoes in their skins in boiling salted water until soft. Remove & drain. Cool a little, then peel. Pass the warm potato through a potato ricer. Mix in as much of your flour as necessary to make a very soft dough—the less flour you have to use, the better & softer your gnocchi will be. Cut off chunks of the mixture & gently roll out logs about 3/4 inch thick, without pressing down too hard. Cut into pieces about 1 inch long.

Meanwhile, melt the butter in a small saucepan over the highest heat until it starts fizzing. Add the scampi pieces & cook until they are golden on the bottom, all the liquid has evaporated, & the scampi are once again frying in the butter & there are some crusty bits here & there. Add a little salt, & when the scampi are golden in places & the flesh is bright white & soft, add the cognac & ignite the pan, standing back so that you don’t burn yourself. Add the scampi to the tomato sauce.

Bring a large pot of salted water to a boil. Add half the gnocchi to the boiling water & cook until they bob up to the surface, then lift out with a slotted spoon. Add to the hot tomato sauce while you cook the second batch. Once the gnocchi have all been added to the tomato sauce, increase the heat to high & add about 4 tablespoons of the gnocchi cooking water to loosen things up a little. Fold everything together.

Allow the sauce to bubble away & toss the pan by flicking your wrist to coat everything rather than stabbing at the gnocchi with a spoon to mix together. Serve immediately into flat bowls or plates, with chopped parsley & a grinding of black pepper.

Serves 4 (abundantly) or 6 (scantily)

NOTE: "In Italy, we get potatoes that say on the bag they are perfect for gnocchi. If that doesn’t happen where you live, try to choose russet potatoes of a uniform size so that they will all cook to more or less the same softness at the same time." Tessa Kiros

Reprinted with permission from © Venezia Food & Dreams by Tessa Kiros, published by Andrews McMeel click for book review

      more chef & cookbook pasta recipes       more pasta recipes       more about Venetian cooking