Leek and scallion soup with potato gnocchi

I love soups and I love gnocchi. This soup called to me naturally.

The original soup recipe from Deborah Madison called for commercial gnocchi, but I wanted to make them at home. I love gnocchi, soft pillows of love, and making them is always fun. Yes, they can be a bit challenging, but the joy of having a wonderful gnocchi is, as they say, priceless! Additionally, I chose to pan-sauté these gnocchi in butter or ghee. This makes the dish very decadent and adds a wonderful texture to the soup.

This soup is elegant and delicious. Lightly scented with leeks and sautéed scallions, it finishes with a hint of spice from the pepper. All soup should be this good! Don't mind the long recipe; this soup is quite easy to make, especially if you purchase the gnocchi commercially.

Tasting Rome is a wonderful cookbook featuring recipes from various restaurants and vendors across the city. Filled with very traditional recipes from masters in the art, this Italian cookbook is fabulous.

For more wonderful Italian recipes from this cookbook, click here.

I have always been a fan of Deborah Madison, particularly her early advocacy for farm-to-table cuisine, vegetarian and vegan cooking, and her depth of knowledge about ingredients and cuisines. I have several of her cookbooks, each one a masterpiece. This soup cookbook, in particular, is packed with recipes, sorted by season, and is one of my go-to books. This fantastic recipe highlights what you can expect. For more recipes from this fantastic book on soups, click here.

Ingredients:

For the soup:

2 tablespoons butter

4 cups leeks, cut in half, rinsed throughly and sliced

1 celery rib, diced

1 medium potato, peeled and diced

Salt, to taste

1 teaspoon white pepper

1/2 cup dry white wine

6 cups water or chicken stock

1 tablespoon olive oil

1 cup scallions, finely sliced into circles

For the gnocchi:

1 lb potatoes, peeled and diced

1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour

A generous pinch of nutmeg

Salt to taste

To make the soup:

Melt the butter in a soup pot and add the leeks, potatoes, salt, and pepper—Sauté over medium-low heat. Stir frequently to prevent the leeks from browning. Once the leeks are cooked and soft, about 7-10 minutes, stir frequently.

Add the wine and bring to a simmer. Cook till most of the wine has cooked off. Add the water and simmer gently for 20 minutes, till the potatoes are soft.

You can now choose to leave the soup as is in a chunky form. Taste and adjust salt as needed. Alternatively, you can purée the soup with a hand blender till very smooth. Taste and adjust salt as needed. You are looking for a fairly thick soup, one where the gnocchi will float If gently placed on top.

In a frying pan, heat the oil and sauté the scallions over low heat until cooked and very soft, about 5 minutes. Do not brown. Set aside to cool.

To make the gnocchi:

Boil the potatoes in salted water till very soft. Drain and cool till warm to the touch—mash by passing it through a food mill, or by hand. Ensure it is as smooth as possible. Mashing potatoes while they are warm helps prevent them from getting gummy.

Add the potatoes in a pile on a lightly floured surface. Make a hole in the centre and add the salt, nutmeg and foil. Mix from the outside in until you have a dough. See notes on making dough for gnocchi below. Allow to rest for 30 minutes at room temperature.

Divide the dough into five portions. On a lightly floured surface, such as my countertop, I roll out the dough into a thin rectangle, about 1/2 inch thick. I use a forward and backwards motion with a slight pressure going out with both hands to stretch the dough. Do not use too much downward pressure so that the cooked gnocchi remains soft. Cut into 1/2 inch pieces using a very sharp knife, and set on a tray covered with a damp cloth. Finish rolling out all. The dough in this manner. Bring a pot of salted water to a boil. Add the gnocchi in batches of about 15. The reason you want to do this in small batches is that you don’t like the water to cool down too much. Additionally, you should remove the old batch before adding a new one. The gnocchi will rise to the surface when cooked, allow to cook for one more minute. You know when the gnocchi are cooked when they float and are approximately double in size. Scoop one out and taste for softness, as well as to check if it is completely cooked in the centre. Overcooking the gnocchi will also make them tough. Note the timings and complete cooking all batches using the established timings above. Note that different batches will have different timings, so follow this process for each batch.

You can serve the gnocchi as is. It is best to have these ready, as the soup is ladled into bowls and served immediately. Storing them makes them a bit tough.

Alternatively, for a richer version, you can sauté the gnocchi in butter till they are evenly browned on all sides. These gnocchi are soft in the center and crisp outside, they are absolutely decadent. It is best to sauté them just before serving for the best results.

To serve the soup:

Heat the soup and ladle it into individual bowls. Add 4-5 pieces of the gnocchi on top, fresh off the stove if possible, and drizzle some of the scallions and oil around them. Serve immediately.

Dough for gnocchi:

There are a couple of tricks for making soft gnocchi. 1) Don’t overwork the dough. As soon as it is mixed in, stop working on it. 2) When rolling them, be gentle again. You don’t want to compact the dough too much.

3) Allow the gnocchi dough to rest for at least 30 minutes; don’t rush this.