You don't "buy a package of gnocchi"...you make them... They are not like dried noodles.
And spaetzel is not the same thing as gnocchi.
I suggest you start from scratch....gnocchi are really delicious...just with butter and grated cheese or witn a pomodoro sauce....but dried? I don't think so.
Linda C

Of course you can buy packaged gnocchi as the link below shows.
Here's a recipe using potatoes:
GNOCCHI WITH POTATOES (serves 5-6)
3 medium potatoes
2 egg yolks
1/2 tsp salt
1 cup flour, approximately
1 1/2 cups your favorite homemade tomato sauce
1 cup or more grated Parmesan

For gnocchi, use a dry, mealy type potato. Boil the potatoes in their jackets, peel & mash. Add the yolks & salt; whip until fluffy. Add the flour & mix, then knead until smooth, adding more flour as necessary to prevent sticking.
Divide the dough into 6 pars & shape each into a long roll about 1/2" in diameter. Cut into pieces about 1" long & press with your thumb or a fork. Sprinkle lightly with flour.
Add about 1/3 of the gnocchi at a time to 6 qts boiling salted water & cook about 5 minutes. Remove to a heated bowl & keep warm. Repeat until all the gnocchi have been cooked.
Add 1 cup of your tomato sauce & 1/2 cup of the cheese & toss lightly. Turn onto a serving platter & pour the remaining sauce over the top. Sprinkle w/the remaining cheese.~~

Here's one using farina:
GNOCCHI PARMIGIANA (serves 4-6)
3 cups milk
1/4 lb butter
1 tsp salt
3/4 cup farina
2 cups grated Pamesan
1 egg, lightly beaten

Combine 2 cups of the milk, 4 TBL of the butter & the salt in a saucepan & bring to a boil. Mix the farina w/the remaining milk & add to the boiling mixture. Cook, stirring, until thickened. Remove from heat.
Add 1 cup of the cheese & the egg & mix well. Turn into a 9" square pan, cool & then chill until firm.
Preheat the oven to 425°. Cut the mush into small rounds, squares or diamonds & arrange in a greased shallow baking dish, preferably having only 1 layer with each shape of cereal slightly overlapping. Melt the remaining butter, pour over the top & sprinkle with the remaining cheese.
Bake until the top is golden brown, about 25 minutes.~~Craig Claiborne

If you try these & still aren't terribly fond of gnocchi, don't feel badly. I can eat gnocchi & have several times, but it's not something I seek out.

Here is a link that might be useful: Gnocchi

And here's a gnocchi mix. Was this the brand you used?

Here is a link that might be useful: Gnocchi mix

The first time I made these, I decided to make a lot so I doubled the recipe-had all kinds of little "balls" rolled out and on cookie sheets but they sure are good. We love these with Gorgonzola Cream Sauce.
Herbed Gnocchi
3med.baking potatoes, peeled and halved
2T butter
2 eggs
3/4 tsp salt
1tsp basil
3/4 tsp oregano
2 to 2 1/4c all purpose flour
In a 3 quart saucepan,cook potatoes til fork tender; drain and cool slightly
In a large bowl, mash potatoes with butter. Stir in eggs, salt, basil, and oregano. Stir in 2c flour to make a slightly stiff dough. On a well floured surface, knead until dough is smooth and stiff adding remaining 1/4c flour if needed. With floured hands shape into "ropes" about 1/2" in diameter and cut into 1" pieces. At this point you may put on cookie sheet, cover with plastic wrap and put in freezer until frozen and then place in plastic bags and store in freezer up to 3 months.
If desired, put on cookie sheet, cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate up to 8 hours.
To cook: in a Dutch oven bring 4 qts water with 1T salt to a full boil. Add half of gnocchi, cook over medium heat until gnocchi float to the top of the water, then cook an additional 4-5 minutes. Remove with slotted spoon, drain, and cook remaining gnocchi. Top with melted butter or favorite sauce.
Yields:8 servings or 54 gnocchi.
Love spaetzles too but then, I could eat any kind of pasta 7 days a week and not get tired of it.
RL`

Iowagal, could it be that you just don't care for dumplings? That's all gnocci and spaetzle are.

Although potato is the traditional major ingredient, I also make them with winter squash added, as a variation.

But I agree with Linda. Don't see any need to make them any way except from scratch. They're neither difficult nor particularly time consuming.

More to the point, having had spaetzle from a box, there really is a taste difference between that and made fresh. I have to believe gnocci would be the same.

You know, Roselin, gnocci in gorgonzola sauce is a traditional way of serving them. But to me, the sauce always seems overpowering. I prefer my gnocci simply dressed with sage butter.

Well, we all have different tastes and the gnocchi with gorgonzola sauce is a dish I used to order in Germany and it brings back fond memories.

A Gorgonzola sauce might make me like gnocchi more. Did you ever make the Gorgonzola potatoes I've posted before, Roselin?

No, in fact I don't recall the recipe.......can you repost it,please?

Thanks for the recipes and advice.
Ginger, actually, the brand I bought is Archer Farms, distributed by Target out of MPLS, and the package says "product of Italy". They're not dry like noodles or spaetzel out of a box, but soft and moist in a tightly sealed heavy plastic package, with a 4-5 month shelf life.
Well, I tried again, made 1/2 of Ginger's recipe but sauced it with 1/4 c butter and 1/2 c fresh parmesan, and cooked up this package and sauced half with a cream sauce and some gorgonzola I had on hand because Roselin's suggestion sounded so good, and half with marinara. The sauces were great, but no more gnocchi for me. They weren't awful this time, but I didn't think they were very good either. Gardenlad - I love dumplings and I love spaetzel, and I hardly ever get tired of pasta. And I agree about making homemade spaetzel, but it didn't help in this case. I really couldn't tell much difference between my homemade and the commercial ones, although I'm a poor judge since I don't like either one.
Roselin, if you'd share your recipe for the Gorgonzola cream sauce, I'd love to have it. Mine was just cream, green garlic and Gorgonzola.
Ginger, that Gorgonzola potato recipe sounds yummy.

The best gnocci I ever had was at the Luna Baglione just off piazza San Marco...simply butter and fresh grated parmesan.
The difference between gnocci snipped off the rope, shaped with a fork and dumped into boiling water and served hot with a simple sauce and gnocci out of a package is rather like the difference between bread from the supermarket in a plastic bag, and home made bread fresh out of the oven.
The pre made packaged stuff can be fine, but to say you don't like something when all you have had is the stuff packaged in plastic is ignoring lots of good food.
But to each his own...I love fresh gnocci,,,with butter, with gorgonzola sauce, marinara sauce...beef gravy... and while I haven't ever had it, I think I would like it with milk and sugar!
Linda C

She made it from scratch as have I & still wasn't wild about it. I've had it at, among other places Locanda Locatelli that is a Michelin starred restaurant in London & wasn't wild about it there either. Different strokes, etc., etc., etc.

Well, Linda, it does have about the same ingredients as lefse, and I like that with butter and sugar. LOL

Iowagal, I posted the recipe the German chef gave me...quick, easy and I hope you like it.
RL`

Oops, my brain was working faster than my fingers.......posted that recipe on the Gorgonzola thread, Iowagal.

Thanks Roselin, I'll give it a try. Sounds like a good one to have.

I love my gnocci with browned butter or browned butter with a drop or two of balamic vinegar. I also like to brown the butter, let it cool and add some tomato paste to it. Or brown the butter and add different herbs to it. I guess I just love browned butter!

I love home-made gnocci, but I always keep some of the packaged stuff around for when I'm in a really big hurry and feeling lazy (usually when I'm home alone and don't feel like bothering with much). The packaged stuff cooks in about a minute and then I just brown the butter and that's my entire meal. Sometimes I microwave a few frozen meatballs to go with it and I have my meal in less than 5 minutes.

Iowagal, if your name is "Ginger" you could always use heavy cream instead of the half and half and it will be much richer! LOL
Dlynn, I'm with you on the browned butter too. Love it in frostings and heck, just about anything else I use butter for.

In reading Iowagal's posts I'm pretty sure the second batch was packaged as well but made with Ginger's sauce, which did seem to help!

It's true different strokes, but I find a huge difference in texture and taste between homemade and packaged. Then there is my friend's, Nona's, gnocci.....a whole other level!

As much as I prefer fresh made , it's a PIA to make IMHO, so I only have it when I go to a very good Italian restaurant.....not expensive..... but good.

Yes, there's a difference between packaged & homemade but I still am not wild about homemade & those I've had at VERY good Italian recipes. We all don't like the same things & that's what makes life interesting.

Recipes AND restaurants, I should say. I don't like cooked carrots & while I serve them, the countless times I've tried them & with different preparations hasn't changed my mind.

Actually, I don't find them anymore of a PIA to make than some breads and other things that people seem to make all the time.

Well there you go, it's all about personal taste, one would never want to judge, just offer an opinion. Practice what you preach.

Capital letters tell me that someone is trying to make a point. My only point was that good Italian (or any other cusine) food does not have to be in an expensive restaurant.

Somehow though there often seems to be a subtle, or not so subtle shot, when the opinion offered is not by one of the "three"......

I am getting a gentle giggle about gnocci at a German restraunt as a standard ...
Spatzel yes...but gnocci?
Gnocci is simple food, not usually subjected to strong opinions one way or another, and certainly not expensive nor difficult to fix.
Somehow I suspect this thread is not really about gnocci at all.
But of course everyone is entitled to their opinions.
Personally, I LOVE gnocci. never met a "gnocce" I didn't like...that is the singular of gnocci, isn't it??
Linda C

And which 3 are you talking about? I'm getting a giggle about sudden appearances of people who rarely come here & then just to chide some of us. I don't like gnocchi, you don't like chalaza. And it's OK for Iowagal not to like gnocchi either.

And maybe Linda or Chase would like to share their recipes? This IS the Recipe Exchange.

"subtle, or not so subtle shot"

I would assume posters at Moe's would know all about the not so subtle shots at posters here on the Recipe Exchange, wouldn't they?

Don't bother reporting this thread. I'm out of here. Just call me St. Ginger (among the other things I've been called, along with the trash spoken about a deceased ex-member here.) This will give the back room at Moe's more to buzz about & that's always a good thing.

Iowagirl, If you would like to try one more time, here is the recipe that I use for Gnocchi. It is Michael Smith's recipe. He bakes the potatoes first and then while still warm, scoops the potato out of the skins and adds enough flour to the potato to make a soft dough that is firm enough to form into a rope and then cut into pieces. It is very easy. You don't want to overwork the dough either. It doesn't need anything more than just salt and pepper. No eggs at all. But I like to play around and add some seasoning. Last time I made them a month or two ago, I added some parmesan cheese and some fresh chives to the dough. I prefer gnocchi as a side rather than a main course.

These freeze well too. Just put them on a cookie sheet and when frozen pop into a ziplock bag.

I post her quite regularly, I don't visit Moe's. I rarely bake anything, which is probably why I find it PIA to make, and I surely am not trying to chide anyone.

I simply posted my view , never did I say it was the only view or that it was the right view, as a matter of fact I said that I agreed with "different strokes", and I do.

In rereading this thread I see a post that didn't "click" with me before. Ginger mentions having had Gnocchi in a 5 star restaurant.

I could see how one might think my subsequent post was a "shot" at that post and for that I appologize. I really didn't read the post well enough to digest that part of it.

You can choose to believe me or not, but that point was lost on me. My reference to restaurants was unrelated...lesson learned.

AnnT thanks for the link but I can't find gnocchi there. Lots of good recipes though. Actually, I don't know if I'm interested in trying any other gnocchi recipes, at least for awhile. Had enough. The sauces were good and I enjoyed those, but I just don't like gnocchi, personally. I have determined that much. I'm sorry if I offended anyone and look like such a fool for comparing my love for spaetzel to a way to sauce the gnocchi. I didn't know it would open me up to having someone giggle at me for it, but no matter. I do appreciate all the offers of recipes and replies that offered me advice and answers to my question. I am disappointed to see that my message started hard feelings between any of you. I'm not sure who "the 3" are, but I bet you are 3 of the most active and HELPFUL and NONJUDGMENTAL members and contribute a lot to this place, and I hope the I'm out of here wasn't what it sounded like. I don't think Chase's comment was meant as a jibe to anyone, and I hope we can just leave these darned gnocchi behind and get back to sharing recipes, which is what we are all1 about. Makes me afraid to ask again for another recipe! And who is Moe????

Moe's is a public forum that some members frequent with a Speakeasy private room that is for special members only.
I do like gnocchi and spaetzle also but I know that not everyone does so don't feel badly. I was the one that mentioned the gnocchi in the German restaurant but like here in the US, other countries have different ethnic restaurants also.

I have been married into an Italian family for 43 years now, and Mama does not make, nor never made gnocchi. When I asked why, she said simply.. 'my family never cared for them.' No sin in not liking gnocchi. I love it with a butter and sage sauce, but my husband (the Italian) has no interest.
I happen to like pickled pigs knuckles, but if you don't want to like them too, that's fine by me.

Iowagal, The recipe isn't on that site. I just gave the link to the site so that you could see who Michael Smith is. I don't blame you for not wanting to try any more recipes. You either like it or your don't. I actually like gnocchi, but I love spaetzle. Two totally different foods though.

And don't feel like you are responsible for any of the problems on this forum. You aren't.

Oh and to answer your question. Moe is my husband and Moe's cocktail bar was a spinoff that Lars created from a
Diner Cookbook that those of us on the Cooking Forum put together a few years ago. Someone suggested that it should be called Moe's Diner cookbook since the cookbook was orginally my idea. If you are interested in a copy of the cookbook I will be more than happy to email the file to you.

Ann

I tried gnocci for the first time this summer. I like it alot and have had it several times since. My favorite way is with a basic browned butter sauce and a little parm. My friend eats it with cottage chesse over it and crumbled bacon. I guess it is just a matter of taste!