Homemade Gluten-Free Gnocchi (2024)

FAQs

What can I substitute for flour in gnocchi? ›

A simple mix of white rice flour and sweet rice flour does the trick. And the sweet rice flour is important. Made with only white rice flour, the gnocchi were too soft. A half cup of sweet rice flour, which is ground from glutinous, short-grain rice, added a nice bite without making the gnocchi gritty.

For gluten-free gnocchi that's light, fluffy, flavorful, and stays together without being gummy, this recipe uses a combination of superfine blanched almond flour, tapioca flour, and sweet rice flour.

While the primary ingredient in gnocchi is potatoes, flour is typically used as a binder in traditional gnocchi so this makes them definitely NOT gluten-free.

At Faro, Adey says, “We run very few potato gnocchi.” Instead they stick to the less common side of the root vegetable family: “Parsnip, gilfeather turnip, and salsify work great.” Broccoli and cauliflower, which are sturdy and dry, also hold up well to the test.

Never boil potatoes for gnocchi. Always bake potatoes in their skins to make gnocchi from. It removes maximum moisture from the potato. Don't bake them in advance as you need to use them as soon as they come out of the oven.

My Gnocchi Are Falling Apart When I Cook Them

This means there isn't enough flour and your dough is too wet.

Nutritional Value

Believe it or not, regular pasta is actually more carb-heavy than gnocchi, coming in at around 2 times the amount of carbs per serving. Gnocchi is also notorious for having a lot more sodium, with over 200 grams of it per serving. Regular pasta doesn't have nearly as high of a sodium content.

While it's technically categorized as an Italian dumpling, gnocchi is the perfect substitute for pasta. TJ's cauliflower version is gluten-free, like most gnocchi varieties, but it's also egg-free, making it uber allergy-friendly.

Unlike potato gnocchi, Roman gnocchi (Gnocchi alla romana), are made with semolina instead of potatoes and flour, that's why they are also called Semolina gnocchi. Roman gnocchi are shaped differently than potato gnocchi.

Because orzo is a small, short-cut pasta, some people confuse it with rice, a gluten-free grain. In fact, orzo is the Italian word for barley, a grain that resembles rice ( 2 ). Thankfully, even though traditional orzo is not gluten-free, there are many gluten-free varieties available.

Why are mashed potatoes not gluten-free? ›

Potatoes are plucked from the ground, cleaned and sold in their original form. They do not contain any wheat, rye, barley or triticale. Some processed foods that contain potatoes may have other gluten-containing ingredients. For example, if boxed mashed potatoes are thickened with flour, they are not gluten-free.

Italian flour is often different due to the use of traditional and ancient wheat varieties like Einkorn and Emmer, which have a different gluten structure compared to modern wheat. These grains are typically processed using gentler methods, preserving their natural qualities and making them more digestible.

Egg yolk added to your gnocchi dough helps improve texture, and keep it together while cooking. Gnocchi is traditionally made with eggs in Veneto and no eggs in Piedmont, the two Northern Italian regions famous for gnocchi. We vote for egg yolks at the rate of 1 per (500g) 1 lb of uncooked potatoes used.

The secret to the lightest, most tender potato gnocchi is to bake the potatoes instead of boiling them. A baked potato is dryer than one that has been boiled, which means you avoid having to add more flour to the dough to account for excess moisture, a practice that leads to over-kneaded, tough gnocchi.

The best substitute for potato flour is going to be potato flakes, which is essentially potato flour that hasn't been ground as fine. You can either dissolve it into batter for baking, or use a blender or food process to grind it into a fine powder. Potato flakes can be substituted for potato flour using a 1:1 ratio.