Tips for making Gnocchi

After our "not perfect" attempt at making Gnocchi yesterday I have done some research and come up with a few tips that may help:
1. Make sure you use old floury potatoes. Desiree potatoes are perfect and are even better if you keep them in a cool, dry place for a few weeks to age before using.
2. When cooking the potatoes cook until just cooked but still firm. If boiling don't test with skewer too often or they will become water logged. You can bake the potatoes for extra flavour and this also means you won't have to use as much flour as the potatoes will be drier. You can also steam or cook the potatoes in the microwave.
3. When mashing the potatoes use a fork and keep "fluffing" the mix as you go or better still use the coarse side of a grater or the medium sized grating plate of a potato ricer or mouli. Don't let the potatoes form a clump as you grate or rice them. Using a potato ricer or mouli will create a lighter gnocchi than mashing.
4. If you add too much flour your gnocchi will be heavy and tough. If you add too little flour they will disintegrate when cooking. Good idea to try cooking a few pieces and deciding if you need to add more flour before you make the whole batch.
5. Don't over knead the dough as it will make the gnocchi tougher.
6. When you have made the gnocchi shapes place on a baking tray on lightly floured baking paper and cover with a clean, dry tea towel. I think this is where we went wrong...it was a humid, wet day yesterday so the gnocchi continued to get moister as they sat waiting to be cooked. If we had floured the tray and covered the gnocchi it may have helped.
7. If you roll the gnocchi shapes over the back of a fork or roughen up on the side of a grater the sauce will cling to the cooked gnocchi better.
8. If you aren't going to cook the gnocchi straight away place tray in freezer. When frozen place in bags for later use. You can cook the gnocchi from frozen but obviously it will take a little longer to cook.
9. You can add herbs, spinach or ricotta for different flavours and colour. You can also substitute potato with sweet potato or pumpkin.
10. Give it a go and remember....practice makes perfect!