Gluten-free gnocchi love a good meat sauce that isn't Bolognese

There is something deeply disappointing about waiting all day to eat something you have been thinking about, only to open the fridge and find mold in the packaging. I find this happening regularly with gluten-free goods. It is what happened to me last Sunday. I had made a really good meat sauce, Nonna style. Then I went to the gym, the whole time thinking about that pack of gluten-free store-bought gnocchi waiting for me at home. And when I got back, I discovered the unwanted truth: the gnocchi were completely inedible. And while everyone else would have just cooked some regular pasta and moved on, I could not let go of the idea of gnocchi. So I made them myself.

The recipe is simple. The only tricky part is that you need to adjust the consistency based on your potatoes. Different potatoes hold different amounts of moisture, which means they may absorb more or less flour. You will figure it out as you go.

Ingredients for 2 people:

• 10 oz (300 g) starchy potatoes, peeled weight, raw

• 1 egg

• 3/4 tsp (4 g) fine salt

• 3/4 cup (100 g) rice flour, plus more for the work surface

• 1/3 cup (50 g) potato starch

Steam the potatoes until completely fork-tender, then remove from the heat and let them cool slightly. Press them through a potato ricer into a large bowl, then add the egg, the salt and the flours. If you are unsure about how much moisture your potatoes hold, start with half the rice flour and add more as needed. Knead with your hands until you get a smooth, workable dough.

Dust a work surface generously with rice flour. Take small pieces of dough and roll them into long logs, then cut into individual gnocchi. You can leave them as they are or roll them over the back of a fork to get that classic ridged shape.

With this kind of fresh pasta, I love a good meat sauce. Not the usual Bolognese, but more of what Italians call “sugo con carne,” the kind of slow, deeply flavored tomato and meat sauce you find in households across southern Italy. You start with a classic soffritto: onion, celery and carrot, all finely diced, cooked low and slow in a pan with some olive oil or butter. Then you add cubes of beef and sear them on each side until nicely browned. Once the meat has some color, pour in the tomato puree, add salt, and let everything simmer together for 2 to 3 hours.

Now you can maybe understand why I was not willing to waste a sauce like that on a lesser pasta.

With love,
Marta