HOST: Hi everybody.
Thank you for joining us in our--
oh.
Thank you.
Not your first cooking demo here.
But the first one since I've been here in the
last couple of months.
So thank you guys for coming out and joining us.
I'm super excited about our guest Jason Neroni, our
neighbor from Superba Snack Bar just down the street.
If you guys haven't got a chance to stop in, I think
after you taste this gnocchi today, you're definitely going
to be going down there to check it out.
Jason has been all over the place, literally.
And I'm not going read you the laundry list.
But we can name Alice Waters and Chez Panisse.
He's been to El Bulli.
He spent many years with Alan Ducasse all over the world.
Paris, Morocco, and parts unknown, most likely.
He was part of the opening team for
Spago with Chef Hefner.
And he has taken all that knowledge and all his travels,
brought it to our neighborhood, and brought it
to you here, today, at Google.
So, without any further ado, Chef Jason Neroni of
Superba Snack Bar.
[APPLAUSE]
JASON NERONI: Hi, guys.
How are you?
Thanks for coming.
This demo won't be too long.
I know some of you either have to go back to work and/or have
a lunch at the restaurant at noon.
So this is a little preview introduction.
Some of you have not been to Superba.
We're right up the street between Fifth and Sixth.
At Dimic--
5 and 1/2 whatever you want to call it.
We are a pasteria, first and foremost, with snacks as well.
We make all of our pastas in-house, as well as
everything else.
Salumi.
We go to the farmers' market probably
about five days a week.
We are very local, very fresh, very seasonal.
Menu changes all the time.
Quite literally, like, five or six things this week, with
more coming.
We always look for whatever's available.
And whatever's not goes away.
Today I'm doing a gnocchi dish.
A lot of people look at a gnocchi, and they're like, oh,
it's so tedious.
It's really hard.
Oh my god.
I can't make it.
They go and they buy this stuff at the stores that's
like rubber band balls that you boil in water.
But I'll show you today, it's a very, very simple, very easy
process to get through with this.
It's probably no more than four ingredients, and
shouldn't take you more than an hour to put together, if
you ever have the time.
So what you always want to start off with
is some russet potatoes.
You can always make a fair amount of this.
And you can freeze it.
Put it bags.
It will hold for at least a week.
Smaller ones I like to use.
Not the larger ones, if you guys ever do do that.
Because the larger tend to overcook on the outsides,
versus the smaller ones, which you get a perfectly
consistency all the way through.
The smaller ones are usually younger, which means there's
more moisture content in them, which is better for what we're
looking for for we roll these out.
So we bake them on a bed of salt--
kosher salt, more specifically--
to draw out the moisture.
Moisture and gnocchi are good and bad in two different ways.
We're adding flour for binding, and eggs.
But too much moisture will give you a gummy dough.
You cook these potatoes at about 350 to 400,
depending on your oven.
We do it with a fan on.
Some of you probably have dry ovens at home.
It just depends.
Convection is the one, specifically,
that I'm talking about.
It makes the potatoes cook faster and more even.
You want to cook them not like you would make a baked potato.
You cook them so that they're just barely falling out.
You don't want potato skins that you're going to stuff
later with cheddar cheese and bacon bits.
You can always save them for that if you want.
Just so that they're nice and soft.
You can always re-use use the salt as well.
And this takes about 45 minutes to an hour at maximum,
like I said.
Gloves, I would say, are appropriate, unless you like
burning your hands.
If you do not have one of these amazing machines in
front of me, which are called potato ricers, you could
always buy--
you've probably seen it at the stores before.
You can put the potatoes in.
Your mom probably used it a couple of times to make the
mashed potatoes when you were a kid.
That will work just as fine.
I wouldn't suggest using anything else because you
won't obtain the light, fluffiness and airiness that
you're trying to attain in order to make this.
I've seen gnocchi made a million
different ways in the world.
Most specifically, when I learned to make it in Italy,
the woman who showed me boiled her potatoes to hell.
Peeled them, put them in a pot, and then mashed them down
into almost a paste.
And then added flour to them until they became these fairly
light, surprisingly enough, balls.
Working in a restaurant environment and looking for
consistency, I found this to be the best way.
Each chef, though, will always tell you, there's a million
different ways to Sunday to make them, though.
My personal opinion is the best way is this way.
Almost done.
So this makes about--
as you see my demo tray up here-- it makes about this
much each time.
Which is enough to feed about a family of 10.
So that's about 20 potatoes.
You can cut this in half by about 10.
I try not to make it much smaller than that, because the
density and the amount of egg you put into it.
Once you have that out, this should be nice and fluffy.
Also, to test if they're actually cooked all the way
through, just stick a fork in it, just like the old saying
goes, if you're not sure.
Again, you don't want to cook them too much.
And then I just like to put my hands in them, aerate them a
little bit.
You don't want to mix these when they're too hot.
Otherwise, they become very gummy.
So I just try to--
AUDIENCE: If we don't have something like that, what
about a food processor?
JASON NERONI: Food processor will not work.
It will activate the starch in there.
You just basically want to break the potatoes apart to
aerate them, so that the flour will actually bind to the rice
bits that come off of it.
Like I say, you can buy a $10 potato ricer, probably at
Surface or Sur La Table, or one of those places.
That would be my highest suggestion.
They have smaller versions of this that you can find.
But these are about $100 at a store.
For that professional chef at home, I highly suggest.
All right so these are cooled off a fair amount.
Two eggs, one of which you need the whole and the other
one you need just the yolk.
Salt.
Be generous.
Those goes your caloric intake for the day, I know.
And about two cups of flour.
Now, people always say, oh, well, it's a recipe.
It should always be the same.
It's not.
It's never the same.
It's close, but it's never exactly the same.
Potatoes have different starch contents, different water
contents, it's about two cups.
Could be less.
Could be more.
So the best way to do this is to start with less.
I know that my hand holds about a cup of flour, after
making this recipe about 50 million times.
And again, if you ever go to the store and you buy these
things, this is two cups right here.
When I do it at the restaurant, I measure out
exactly two cups.
And I would say 95% of the time, it works.
Now, when you do it, you don't want to push down and crush
the potatoes.
The idea is--
I'll give you guys a little example.
I'm pushing my fingers into it like this.
It's just barely pushing them into each other, but you're
not forcing the situation.
You're giving it a light toss.
And you'll start to see it slowly start to
come together in lumps.
Once you see that, then you can start
to push them together.
And they start to bind together other.
Now there should be moisture there, but they
should not be wet.
That's the most important part.
So the best way I always like to try to do it, I take my
hand off and I feel it.
If anybody wants to actually stand up and feel what it
might actually feel like, I invite you to come try that
right now, before I roll it out.
Anybody want to feel them?
Now like I said, that was two cups.
And I'm going to--
AUDIENCE: [INAUDIBLE] eat this afterwards.
JASON NERONI: That's OK.
We're going to cook them.
Feel it.
AUDIENCE: So that's about right?
JASON NERONI: What I always say, it should sound like a
basketball.
It should have a little bit of an echo to it for density.
But feeling this right now, it's still a little wet.
I can feel it.
There's too much moisture on here.
I need to have a little more binding to it.
So again, we're going to put a little bit more flour.
I'm going to push my fingers into it like so.
Again, I'm not overly mashing them.
Fold them on top.
It's all about folding.
Just like if you're making bread.
You're just folding.
Not rushing the situation.
AUDIENCE: It's two cups, so about how much egg?
JASON NERONI: For this?
This was about 20 potatoes.
So you could about one cup.
So about one cup per 10 potatoes.
One egg per 10 potatoes.
You don't want to--
I've seen recipes with too many eggs.
The egg is acting just as a vessel, as an emulsifier.
You don't need too much.
It's more about potato than it is about the flour.
Generously and liberally flour your surface.
At point, you probably want to get rid of your gloves.
There's your dough.
Ah, yes.
Can everybody see it?
I know the people over there can't see it too well, but--
I cover it with just a bit more flour.
Now--
yes.
I like to cover them so that they don't dry out, and keep
it like that while I roll out the dough.
That way they don't dry out.
They still say nice and warm.
They're still pliable.
They don't cool off too much.
Because if they get too cold, then they
start to break apart.
If they're too hot, they start to break apart.
What you're really looking for, specifically, is a medium
temperature.
Slightly warm.
I always say to my cooks, never break off more
than you can chew.
Specifically when you break this off.
Because you don't need to be like a Food Network show.
You don't have to have the gnocchi from here there.
You just want to have a little amount.
Now when it comes to rolling, what you're basically doing is
crimping these potatoes down.
You push them together in such a fashion.
If you guys have ever made cookie dough, you might
understand what I'm talking about.
You're just crimping them down, and slowly--
You're basically letting the potato do all
the work for you.
Like any good cooking equipment, or any good thing
in cooking, the product should do the work for you.
Especially if you're working with a good product.
Like good pizza ovens or good pasta machines.
So once you have it out--
again, like I said you don't have to bite off more
than you can chew.
You have a nice little dough ball right there.
Take your knife.
I always say to measure about half a thumb in length.
And yes, you have to go that fast.
There are different ways people do these.
You've probably seen in a million restaurants.
We do it at our restaurant as well.
You can do this with any at-home--
we call them the sauce catcher.
This is why you're in a restaurant, like,
why do they do that?
When you see them go like this, and they have the little
indentations on the back of them.
It's because when you toss them in the sauce, you want
the sauce and everything to catch on to the pasta.
The Italians do that more than the French.
I don't know why.
I find most French people like to do that.
Preferential treatment.
You can also put dimples in them, as so.
All the way down.
And that's also a good way of sauce catching if you don't
feel comfortable enough with rolling them off the back of a
fork or the front of a fork.
I'm going to put these up here for you guys to try.
Or to feel, at least, when you have a hot moment.
That's pretty much that part of it.
Through the magic of TV, once you've blanched your gnocchi,
which only takes about 30 seconds-- since we are a
little technically challenged on the set of Google today--
you'll come up with these beautiful gnocchi, watch I'll
also let you feel as well.
So you can see the difference between those and those.
OK?
We're going to make a very simple sauce for this.
A stale pot of water.
There's this really amazing book called "The French
Laundry Cookbook" where he has a great section.
And it's called big-pot blanching.
The bigger the pot, the better for the smaller amount,
specifically with your green vegetables and types of pasta.
Because basically what you're doing is
stopping the cooking process.
And it's just sitting in tepid water absorbing water, versus
cooking at a proper temperature.
We like to say sometimes, salty as the sea in our
blanching water and our cooking pasta.
Because you're infusing the salt directly into it as well.
Just a little bit of butter.
Just a little bit.
I think you guys are going to be ordering salads today at
the restaurant.
A little bit of water, just for emulsification purposes.
Protein and the fat, as you cook them down,
will start to emulsify.
Once I blanch my gnocchi in the restaurant, I never put it
back into the water.
We definitely cook it directly in the sauce specifically.
AUDIENCE: After you blanch, how long can it sit out?
JASON NERONI: You can hold these for about a week in a
nice, dark, cool place.
AUDIENCE: Did you not refrigerate it?
JASON NERONI: No.
Definitely refrigerate it.
Sorry.
I left that part out.
Under a counter somewhere in your house.
Tepid 80 degrees would be really amazing.
Yes, refrigeration.
A great trick, too, you can learn is that, when you pull
them out of your blanching water, make sure you drain off
the water all the way.
As you'll see, there's absolutely no water that comes
off of them.
Because the water tends to leech out a little bit more on
the bottom here.
Which means your gnocchi will tend to just sit in a pool of
water, which is not good for them.
They'll just continue to absorb water.
And they'll just become mushy.
I like to take them out.
I put them in a draining pan.
I let them drain completely, completely, completely, for a
couple of minutes, until all the water you can tell is
completely dropped off.
And then we add the olive oil to them.
Toss them in the olive oil.
That way, that prevents sticking.
There's always going to be a little bit of residual starch.
That what's going to keep them together.
But you can see, these have been together for, now, since
yesterday morning.
You just give them a little bit of move, and they start to
break apart.
I've lost many, many batches of gnocchi by people not
putting oil.
And you go to move it, and you just turn it into a whole mush
of potatoes.
And then you can pull out your Cuisinart and turn them into
mashed potatoes.
I'll add the cheese.
And, like I said, just a little bit of cheese.
And you're making what's called a liaison.
Which is basically an emulsification of a sauce.
Here we just have cheese, water, and butter.
AUDIENCE: How much?
JASON NERONI: A good handful.
AUDIENCE: What kind?
JASON NERONI: Oh.
Parmesan.
Sorry.
Parmesan or Reggiano, two years aged is
traditionally the best.
At least, we use.
Accept no imitations.
A little bit of salt.
We like fresh pepper.
Put a couple more.
And I expect you to be able to toss them like that, too.
OK?
[LAUGHTER]
JASON NERONI: So these are pretty much done.
A little bit of parsley for a little bit of
fresh herb at the end.
You guys want to try it?
No.
And that's it.
[APPLAUSE]
JASON NERONI: I'll make another batch for those who
want seconds.