Gnocchi with cheese sauce and truffle is the most demanding and the most rewarding recipe in the collection. The first secret is in the potatoes: red-skinned, steamed rather than boiled, and mashed while still hot. The less water they absorb, the less flour they need, and the lighter the gnocchi will be.
The second secret is the sauce: a butter and flour roux, boiling milk, fifteen minutes of cooking with constant stirring on the bottom of the pan, then cream and one last return to the boil. The gnocchi are not dressed on the plate but tipped, boiling hot, into a large tureen together with the Fontina and Parmesan, which melt from their heat alone. The grated truffle goes in last, just before folding everything together and serving.
The sauce can be made ahead and brought back over low heat with a splash of milk. If the gnocchi fall apart while cooking, the purée was too wet: add flour a spoonful at a time and always test a single gnocco before dropping in the whole tray. Both a structured white and a young red served cool work well alongside.
Ingredients
For the gnocchi
- Red-Skinned Potatoes: 1250 g
- Type 00 Flour: 350 g
- Egg: 1
- Salt: to taste
For the cheese sauce
- Cream: 200 ml
- Butter: 100 g
- Flour: 30 g
- Milk: 500 ml
- Fontina Cheese: 200 g
- Parmesan: 50 g
- Truffle: 50 g
- Salt: to taste
Preparation
Cooking the potatoes
Steam the red-skinned potatoes, peel them and mash them while still hot.
Dough and shaping
Let the purée cool, work in the egg and the flour and shape the gnocchi.
Sauce base
Melt the butter in a small pan, add the flour and salt and stir over the heat for about 2 minutes without letting it colour.
Cheese sauce
Add the boiling milk to obtain a very loose béchamel. Cook for at least 15 minutes, stirring constantly on the bottom with a wooden spatula, adjust the salt, add the cream and bring to the boil.
Cooking the gnocchi
Cook the gnocchi in boiling salted water and drain them as soon as they rise to the surface.
Finishing and serving
Pour the sauce into a large tureen, add the boiling gnocchi with the Fontina and Parmesan, then add the grated truffle, fold everything together well and serve.
