Gnocchi with sage butter

Name: Gnocchi with sage butter
Prep time: 40 min
Cook time: 50 min
Total time: 90 min
Yield: 4
Cuisine: Italy
Ingredients: 1 kg floury potatoes (russet); 250 g wheat flour; 1 egg; 1 tsp salt; 80 g butter; 12 sage leaves; 50 g grated Parmesan; Black pepper

Local name: Gnocchi burro e salvia

Homemade potato gnocchi, light as clouds, simply tossed in a nutty brown butter scented with sage and finished with Parmesan.

Published on 17 October 2026

#potatoes#fresh pasta#sage#butter#parmesan

Photo: Paoletta S., CC BY 2.0

Prep: 40 min
Cook: 50 min
Total: 90 min
Serves: 4
Difficulty: Medium

Method

Bake the potatoes whole, skin on, at 200 °C for about 50 minutes, until a knife slides through without resistance.
Peel them while still hot and pass the flesh through a ricer onto the work surface. Let it cool for 5 minutes so the steam escapes.
Add the salt, the egg and two thirds of the flour. Bring together into a soft dough with your fingertips, adding the rest of the flour only if it sticks.
Roll into ropes 2 cm thick, cut into 2 cm pieces and roll them over the back of a fork to ridge them.
Drop them in small batches into a large pan of boiling salted water. As soon as they float, count 30 seconds and lift them out with a slotted spoon.
Melt the butter with the sage until it turns golden and smells of hazelnut. Toss the gnocchi in it for 1 minute, add pepper and serve with the Parmesan.

Potato gnocchi only reached Italian kitchens after the potato itself, in the 19th century. Butter and sage remain their simplest and truest sauce.

Nutrition per serving

Calories: 637 kcal
Protein: 17.1 g
Fat: 21.9 g
Carbohydrate: 93.6 g
Fibre: 7.1 g

An estimate computed from the recipe quantities and the USDA food composition database. Real values vary with the products used.

Frequently asked questions

Why are my gnocchi hard and rubbery?

Too much flour or an overworked dough. Add the flour little by little, just enough that the dough stops sticking to your fingers, and bring it together without kneading it like bread.

Why bake the potatoes instead of boiling them?

Baked whole on a bed of salt, they dry out instead of soaking up water. A dry mash needs less flour, and less flour is what makes gnocchi light.

Can I make them ahead?

Yes: spread the well-floured raw gnocchi on a tray so they don't touch and freeze them. Cook them straight from frozen, one minute longer than fresh.

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