Gnocchi with Tablespoon Cooking Co

Kathryn texted, do I want to do a virtual gnocchi cooking class? The answer was yes!

There’s a place called Tablespoon Cooking Company in Cincinnati that normally does real-life classes but has made some adjustments for the moment.

Getting a box of ingredients was optional, but I was happy to grab it all curbside down in Findlay Market. (A reason to leave the house!)

Fired things up and almost immediately I learned something new: Steaming potatoes is far superior to boiling them if you want a very fine textured mash. This alone was worth the price of admission.

And for the most part, making gnocchi from scratch is fairly simple, but it’s also quite messy and labor intensive! At one point it felt like Lucy and Ethel making chocolates as dough needed rolled while it was time to retrieve gnocchi from the softly boiling water.

Black and white television image from I Love Lucy in the chocolate factory episode
Vivian Vance and Lucille Ball at the chocolate factory in a famous episode of “I Love Lucy.”

We decided to go the extra mile and sear them in butter and sprinkle some truffle zest on at the end, and I must say—this was the best gnocchi I have ever had.

But I don’t think I want to make them again anytime soon. This is a once a year endeavor, like filing taxes. That said? I’m eyeing Tablespoon’s Fried Chicken class next.

A women on a Zoom call discusses how to make gnocchi from scratch. There is a blurry Christmas tree in the background that should have been put away months ago.
raw gnocchi, ready to be cooked
Gnocchi in a pan with oil, seared golden brown