Gnocchi for Passover (GF & Vegan/Pareve)

I bought a 5 lb bag of potatoes, even though I only needed about 3 lbs.  It was still cheaper than the per-pound price, and I wanted smaller potatoes to make potato nachos.  That left me with 2 lbs of potatoes to play with, far less than the giant bag I ended up with a year ago, but still food that I didn't want to go to waste.

Most of the comments in the recipes I searched complained that the dough wasn't holding together with matzoh cake meal and potato starch.  More than one said you could only taste the matzoh meal, which is usually my complaint because I don't really like the stuff.

I reran the search with the word tapioca in it and found much better recipes.  Tapioca is one of the main ingredients in vegan egg replacers, so I knew it would be an asset to the recipe.

The main problem with this recipe is its gluten-free-ness.  You can't roll the ropes.  The best you can do is squish cylinders the width of your palm and cut those.  You also can't roll them over the tines of a fork.  You could probably press the back of a fork onto the pieces on the work surface, but I was pretty hungry by that point and just wanted them in the water.  As soon as they boil, the tapioca firms up the mixture and you get your pasta.

One thing you don't get with these is a whole lot of nutrition.  That's why there's a giant quinoa salad next to the finished product.  I added a teaspoon of chia seeds to the dough to keep them from being empty calories, but they do nothing for the taste so I'm not posting them as an ingredient.

*1 lb yukon or russet potatoes
1/2 tsp salt
*1/4 C potato starch
*1/4 C tapioca starch
water as needed
olive oil
sage, basil, or other herb to flavor the sauce

1.  Preheat oven to 375º.  Scrub potatoes clean and place directly on the oven rack.  Bake 1 hour to 75 minutes, until potatoes are easily pierced with a fork.  Wearing oven mitts or a doubled towel, remove potatoes to a work surface.

2.  Slice potatoes open and allow to cool slightly.  Scoop the flesh out of the skin.  Discard or snack on skins.  Run flesh through a food mill or potato ricer.  I didn't feel like cleaning the food mill and processed it pastry cutter-style with a fork.  Work in 1 Tb of oil.

3.  Separately, stir together both starches and salt.  Add to potatoes and work into a crumbly dough.  Add water 1 Tb at a time until you can get it to stick together in clumps.

4. Boil a large pot of water, at least 2 quarts.  On a work surface, form dough into ropes 1/2" thick.  Cut ropes into "pillows" about 3/4" long.  If your dough is sticky enough, try to get ridges by lightly rolling the backside of a fork crosswise against the pillows.

5.  Add the dough pieces to the boiling water.  Once they float, cook another 2 minutes.  Drain.

6.  For a sauce, heat 1/4 C oil in a small saucepan with fresh herb of choice.  Drizzle over finished pasta and serve immediately.

Difficulty rating  :)