Gnocchi

Oh well, this is a staple but worth posting. They turned out rather well today, actually.

• 450g boiled, mashed old potatoes
• 175g plain flour
• 1 egg yolk
• 15g butter (melted)
• Salt and pepper

(serves about 3-4, depending on how hungry you are)
Combine ingredients into a nice dough, roll into a sausage and thence cut up into suitable bite-size gnocci. My grandmother used to roll them on a cheesegrater to make them bobbly on top, and I believe nowadays they are sold in packets with a sort of slash-marking on them. It doesn't actually make a difference - I usually just chuck them straight into the salted boiling water until they float nicely and then scoop them out. Done. Very easy and un-fiddly.

Serve with pasta sauce and a nice sprinkling of cheese. Or you can do the whole pesto-starter thing, or in fact use them for anything you want. One word of caution - I swear these things grow in size after being ingested so don't eat until you're full or you'll be in trouble later. Take it easy on the portions, although usually they're very tasty so it's a tough thing to do.