Gnocchi with Meat Sauce

This was my first time trying my hand at making Gnocchi and I think that it turned out pretty good. Things I learned: cut the Gnocchi a little bit smaller and cook them a tad bit less time.Gnocchi

From: Janet is Hungry

6 medium russet potatoes
1 egg
1 Tbs. salt
2 Tbs. butter
2-3 handfuls of flour, a little over 1 cup

Boil the potatoes in the skin until soft, but not falling apart. While still warm, peel the skin off of the potatoes. Mash the potatoes with a potato ricer so that there are no lumps. (I don't have a potato ricer so I just made sure to mash them up really really well.)

Add the egg and butter. Begin adding flour, a handful at a time until the mixture forms a soft dough that can be worked, but is not sticky. (I gave up on the whole not sticky bit, mine was always a bit sticky and I didn't want to overdo the flour, so I just stopped with about 1 1/4 cups of flour and will likely stop before that next time.)

Divide the dough into 4 smaller balls and roll out on a floured surface into a 1" diameter log. Cut into 1" sections, they will look like little pillows. (Like I said above, I would make these a little bit smaller next time.) Cover with a tea towel and let sit.

Bring a large pot of water to a rolling boil and add salt. Drop the gnocchi in batches into the water. Cook until they float, about 2-3 minutes. Scoop them out and add the next batch. Serve warm with the meat sauce.

Meat Sauce

1 1/2 lbs. ground beef (I think I only used 1 lb.)
6 oz. pancetta, diced
2 Tbs. olive oil
1 large onion, diced
2 carrots, diced
1 large stalk of celery, diced
1 1/2 cups dry red wine
1 (28 oz.) can crushed tomatoes
2 cups beef broth
salt and pepper to taste.

Saute pancetta with onion, carrots and celery. When the onions are almost cooked, add the beef. Cook until beef is no longer pink.

Add the wine and simmer until mostly reduced. Add the tomatoes and about half of the beef broth. Simmer for about 2 hours adding more broth if the sauce is starting to dry out. (I didn't have the time for the 2 hour reduction, so I just add the half of the broth and simmered for about 30 minutes and never added the remaining 1 cup of beef broth and the sauce was still divine.) Add salt and pepper to taste.