Ristorante Il Cibreo - Via del Verrocchio, 8r - Florence - Phone 055 2341100

Potato gnocchi with meat sauce

Serves 6
Ingredients for the gnocchi:
4 kg. of potatoes (preferably red potatoes)
flour as necessary
1 egg (not always needed)
Ingredients for the meat sauce:
1 largered onion, 1 carrot, 1 stick of celery
200 gr.1 sirloin steak
1 fresh sausage
20 gr. di white steak fat
1 chicken neck
1 large glass of red wine
Lemon peel.

Good gnocchi have to be made by finding the right combination of potatoes, flour and egg because potato consistency is very rarely the same. The gnocchi should melt in the mouth and not during cooking. The procedure is as follows: boil, skin and mash the potatoes, mix in with the flour and, if necessary, the egg until you think the mixture is of the right consistency; form small sausage shapes by hand (as for pie decorations) and, using a knife, cut them into small cubes of about 2cms. each; pass these across the back of a cheese grater and place them on some flour on a cloth. Gently cook in boiling salted water, they are ready when they rise to the surface; drain well, taking care not to damage them. Chop up the onion, celery and carrot and fry in an alluminium pan with extra virgin olive oil. Chop up the meat and fat into roughly ' cm cubes. When the vegetables are well cooked, add the meat, the fat, the skinned and crumbled sausage and the carefully washed chicken neck. Cook on a high flame. When everything is well cooked, add the wine and allow it to evaporate completely; at this point cover with water to 2 cm. above the level of the meat, add 2 skinned tomatoes, the lemon peel and season. Cook for about 1' hours on a slow flame, adding water if the mixture gets too dry. When cooking is almost complete, remove the chicken neck, bone it and mince the meat together with the crest and wattles, replace in the sauce and cook for another 15 minutes.