Gnocchi (from scratch)

Last week, since we had some potatoes, I decided to try to make gnocchi from scratch. Our first introduction to gnocchi came last year at a visit to La Dolce Vita, the Italian restaurant down the street. Gnocchi is a potato-based pasta/dumpling. Olive Garden has a chicken gnocchi soup, and it's also yummy with marinara sauce.

The recipe I used came from this Food Network recipe I found. While the flavor, with the accompanying sauce, was pretty good, the texture could have been better. I was in a hurry so I didn't mash up the potatoes as well as I probably would in the future (and I peeled them before microwaving, which did not work so well), and I think maybe I did not add enough flour or perhaps I did not let them cook long enough. Lastly, they might have cooked better had I allowed them to sit out for a while to dry a bit before boiling.

Gnocchi
~ 1.5 lb potatoes
a little bit of salt/pepper, to taste
1 large egg, beaten
~1/2 cup flour

1. Pierce potatoes with a fork and microwave until tender. Original recipe suggests cutting tender potatoes in half and scooping out flesh ; alternately, you can peel/chop and boil potatoes.
2. Mash cooked potato flesh. I used a potato masher, but the one we have tends to leave parts of the potato unmashed. I think in the future I would attempt to put the potatoes in a food processor.
3. Mash salt, pepper and egg into potatoes.
4. Knead flour into mixture.
5. Roll dough into a "rope" shape and cut into ~1" pieces.
6. Drop gnocchi pieces (individually so they do not clump together) into pot of boiling water. Cook about 5 minutes. Remove from pot with slotted spoon.
7. Serve like a pasta with your favorite sauce and parmesan cheese, or add to a soup of your choice.