Gnocchi with Mushrooms Truffle sauce

Directions

Truffle sauce method

Heat a medium size pot over medium/low heat with canola oil. Add shallots and garlic and sweat for four minutes. Add wine and reduce to about one tablespoon. Add chicken broth and reduce to about ¼ Cup. Add Heavy Cream and cook for three minutes. Remove from heat and blend mix with butter, brandy, truffle oil and salt to taste.

Mushrooms method

Place a saute pan on medium high heat with the canola oil. When heat begins to lightly smoke, add mushrooms and cook for two minutes. Lower heat to medium and carefully add red wine. Reduce red wine by three quarters and turn heat off. Add butter and season with salt. Reserve and keep warm.

Potato Gnocchi

1. Preheat oven to 350°F. Spear the potatoes with fork tines in several places around each potato to vent moisture as the potatoes cook. Bake the potatoes in their skins until tender, about an hour. Let cool on a rack, cutting them open to help cool and let more moisture escape

2. Scoop out the potatoes from their skins. Pass the potatoes through a potato ricer and into a large bowl. (If you don't have a potato rice you can mash the potatoes by hand and fluff them up a bit with a fork.) It is best to work with the potatoes when they are still warm.

3.  Add the flour, egg and a pinch of salt. Mix by hand until you have a nice pliable ball of dough. Do not over mix.

4. Prepare a work area and dust it with flour. Take the dough, a piece at a time, and roll it out gently with your hands until you have rolls about 3/4 inch in diameter. It is very important to keep a light touch while you are rolling the dough. Gently roll the dough with your fingertips while while exerting the lightest pressure outwards, not down, to draw the dough out.

5. Cut the tubes of dough into pieces about one inch long. Using either the tines of a fork or your fingertip, press against a piece of the dough and roll it slightly to form an indentation (good for catching the sauce). As the gnocchi are made, place them on flat baking pan, lightly dusted with flour or lined with wax paper. At this point you can freeze the gnocchi ahead of time. Freeze them first on a floured or lined tray, then once frozen you can put them into a freezer bag for more easy storage. To cook, just put the frozen gnocchi into the simmering water for the next step.

6. Bring at least 6 quarts of salted water to a boil in a shallow saucepan. Gently drop the gnocchi, a few at a time, into the water. As soon as they rise to the surface, remove them with a slotted spoon, draining well. Arrange on a warm serving dish. Continue cooking the gnocchiin the same manner.

7. As soon as all the gnocchi are ready, pour heated truffle sauce over them and sprinkle with the lemon zest.