The Thrifty Cookbook: 476 Ways to Eat Well With Leftovers (42 page)

Onions or leeks
Chop finely and soften in oil before adding potato.

Cheese
Try a good handful of grated hard cheese or a little crumbled feta or goat’s cheese.

Sweet potato cakes
Add a few softened leeks and some fresh thyme to cooled sweet potato mash.

Spices
Gently toast a teaspoon of ground spices, such as turmeric or coriander, in a dry frying pan for a minute or so, then add to the mashed potato. Alternatively, use a teaspoon of mustard or creamed horseradish.

Herby dumplings for beef broth or stew
Use 55g mashed potato, 110g self-raising flour, a tablespoon of chopped parsley or thyme, salt and pepper. Mix all well, adding just a little water to bind, if necessary, and form into about 8 golf-ball-sized balls. Poach these in either broth (see
pages 66
-
7
) or a beef casserole. They will take only 5-7 minutes to cook.

These little potato dumplings (
gnocchi
means ‘lumps’ in Italian) are a bit more fiddly to make than potato cakes but, like pasta, they are quick to cook and bland enough to absorb and carry any flavours you choose to add. They also give you a much-needed break from the ubiquitous spaghetti or penne.

My swelegant friends Emily and Ned profess never to cook with leftovers but they are past masters at gnocchi and this is an adaptation of their recipe. I regularly make too much mash on purpose because I love it so much. Though the mash has butter and milk added (which would normally make it too wet), it dries out considerably when it’s been in the fridge for a day or two. Alternatively, use the oldest potatoes you can get your hands on – the longer they hang around, the more starchy they seem to get, and this is exactly what you need.

Whether you use leftovers or not, the mash for gnocchi must be really smooth. Push leftover mash through a sieve with the back of a spoon before using it; or for freshly boiled spuds use a potato ricer or mouli-légumes, or sieve them.

Serves 2

about 450g floury potatoes, peeled, boiled, drained thoroughly and mashed, or about 400g leftover mash

1 teaspoon salt

100-15Og plain flour, plus extra for coating

Mix the cooled mashed potato with the salt and around half the flour to start with, using your hands to combine them and adding more flour as necessary, until you have a firm but slightly sticky dough.

Knead it briefly until smooth, using a little flour just to stop it sticking to your hands and the work surface, but not enough to make it crumbly.

Roll the mixture into long sausage shapes, 1-2cm thick, then cut these into lengths of about 2cm.

You can now shape the little dough balls using 2 teaspoons to make rugby-ball shapes, or roll them between your palms to make spheres and then just slightly flatten them by squeezing gently with your finger and thumb.

Roll each one lightly over the back of a fork to make grooves for the sauce to cling to. Put the gnocchi on a lightly floured tray and leave in the fridge until ready to cook. (In fact you can leave them overnight, or put them in the freezer for an hour if in more of a rush – chilling helps them to dry and firm up.)

Cook the gnocchi in a large pan of salted simmering water for a minute or two – they are ready 10 seconds after they have floated to the surface. If you don’t have a pan that gives them plenty of space, then cook in batches. Remove from the pan with a slotted spoon.