As I get older, I start to enjoy calmer things in life. Savouring every sip of a strong cup of coffee early in the morning. Taking a walk down a forest path rather than a bustling street of a big city… Recently, especially in the last year due to the pandemic, I have been impatiently waiting until all the snow is gone and together with my husband we can go to his family’s cottage in the mountains.
It is a place where you long solitude, smell of the awakening Alpine nature , shyly piercing crocuses through the last snow bits. Perfect surroundings for a laborious kitchen undertaking which then can be enjoyed by a fireplace.
This year our first trip to the cottage was special. It was the first time our little boy joined us. As the weather did not spoil us, with a mixture of sun, rain and snow, bearing in mind it was past the middle of May, and my husband’s love of potatoes, I set my mind on Polish gnocchi, called kopytka. They are little dumplings whose pillowy texture I contrasted with the sharpness of wild garlic, in abundance at this time of the year. The chickpea flour brought these two together, adding to them some nutty earthiness.
Kopytka (Polish gnocchi) with chickpea flour and wild garlic
Course: DinnerDifficulty: Easy4
servings20
minutes5
minutesPerfect little dumplings enjoyed in any way you want – from a rich ragù to a light herb sauce.
Ingredients
1kg potatoes
1 egg
1/4 teaspoon nutmeg
30g wild garlic (a bunch), chopped
salt and pepper, to season
200-300g chickpea flour
Directions
- Bring a pot of salted water to a boil. Add peeled potatoes, cut into bigger chunks. Cook until they are soft.
- Strain the potatoes and mash them while they are still warm.
- Set the mashed potatoes aside until they are completely cooled off and their moisture evaporated.
- Add the egg, nutmeg, chopped wild garlic to the potato mash. Season to your liking.
- Gradually, mix in the chickpea flour (start with 150g). Using your hands, bring all the ingredients together until they are combined. Keep adding in the flour, stopping once the mixture does not stick to your hands anymore.
- Divide the dough into 4 equal parts. Take one part and roll it on the floured surface until you have a log which is around 5 cm thick. Flatten it slightly with a knife.
- Still using your knife, cut the dumplings diagonally, 5 cm wide each. Repeat with 3 other parts of the dough. Remember to store the ready dumplings on a floured cutting tray or plate, so that they do not stick to each other or the surface.
- Boil water in a pot, add some salt (you can also pour in 1 teaspoon of rapeseed oil to prevent the dumplings from sticking to one another while cooking). In batches, cook the dumplings until they come up to the surface, not longer. It can take up to 5 minutes, but they are usually ready in 2 to 3 minutes. Set aside on a plate or serve immediately.
Notes
- The best type of potatoes to use for this recipe are floury ones (in Switzerland, you can choose the one called mehlig kochende Kartoffeln).
- It is important that the potatoes lose their moisture before you mix them with the other ingredients. For the best results, you can use one day old leftover mashed potatoes.
- The amount of flour you use depend on the exact type of the potatoes you have – some are more moist than the other, even after letting them cool and dry out.
- If you have any leftover dumplings, they are great fried in some rapeseed or olive oil.
- These are perfect on their own, but you can enjoy them with fresh tomato sauce in summer, sautéed mushrooms in autumn, warming stew in winter and green asparagus in spring.
- The preparation time includes the active time only. Add around 2-3 hours for the potatoes to cool off.
- Do not forget to take out the cooked dumplings as soon as they resurface to the top of the boiling water. If you leave them cooking for too long, they will fall apart.
