There is something so comforting about little pillows of pasta that are light and fluffy but warm and filling during the winter months. Gnocchi can be sauced as lightly with butter and a sprinkle of cheese or with a hearty meat sauce and be equally delicious. It’s convenient and fast to buy a package in your local grocery store, but quite easy and economical to make from scratch at home.

I have always been a fan of cooking by using leftovers to build new meals. Always a favorite in our house is roasting a few chickens that morph from a Sunday supper into several weekenight meals, chicken sandwiches for lunches and, of course, a hearty stock to use for soups and sauces. In this case, a few weeks ago we roasted chicken and made mashed potatoes on a Sunday evening. I unintentionally made enough mashed potatoes for a family of five with just two of us home that night and had a LOT of leftover mashed potatoes.

So, with thoughts of what to do with the leftover mashed potatoes, I remembered making a gnocchi with leftover mashed potatoes and did some web searches for recipes. The recipe could not be much more simple! The premise of cold, leftover mashed potatoes is brilliant as the starch is cold and unlikely to become glue-like when mixed with the flour. As with any dough, the less handling, the better – or more tender your gnocchi will be.

Using a well floured surface to roll the dough into logs and keeping your fingers/hands well floured will help keep the process less messy. I happened to have 4 cups of leftover mashed potatoes (Yes, I really made way too much for two people!) and doubled the recipe. We cooked about 1/4 of the batch for a dinner and had no leftovers. We were quite full but I was disappointed that there was nothing left for a lunch as leftovers are my favorite weekday lunches.

Using a floured fork to roll each gnocchi helps create grooves that any sauce can better cling to. It also allows quick cooking so the center of the little pilows of pasta will be cooked through by the time they float to the top of the boiling water.

Perfection is not important. A little cornmeal sprinkled onto the sheet pan will help keep the gnocchi from sticking together. I typically freeze them right on the sheet pan when they are spread apart. Once frozen, I put them into a freeer bag or storage container. It is very easy to cook from frozen – actually best – if you allow them to defrost they will soften and become mushy. Just be sure to have plenty of salted water in the pot and if you are making more than 2-3 servings you may want to cook them in two batches so they don’t stick together. Use a spider or slotted spoon to scoop each batch into a serving dish then, repeat with the second batch. They really only take about 2 minutes to cook – once they float they are done!