Help with homemade gnocchi

I'm cooking for ten this weekend, and I'd already promised an entree of homemade gnocchi. I'm going to make two sauces--one tomato based, one cream based--and let people choose. I'm pretty satisfied with the gnocchi recipe I found, but I'm worried about how to keep the early batches of gnocchi in good condition while I shape and cook the later batches. Any advice on how to keep the gnocchi warm and in good condition while I finish things off?

I'd thought about dropping the finished gnocchi into the appropriate sauces to keep them warm, but now I'm worried about them falling apart. I've also read that you can cool them in an ice bath and store them in the refrigerator. But I don't know how good these sources are.

Any advice?

On this post, there's discussion of freezing them just after making them; that might buy you time. Is your concern that you don't have enough boiling water/pot space to cook them at once? I think you could lay them out on flour-dusted parchment paper and they'll keep (within reason) until you can cook them.

There are two things I love about making gnocchi -- 1) you can make them in advance and freeze them, and 2) they cook up very quickly. I've always made my gnocchi in advance, frozen them, then cooked them. And because they cook so quickly and since you can cook them in large batches (although this depends somewhat on the size of your pot), you shouldn't have much difficulty keeping them warm.

To stray from your question a bit, one of my favorite preparations is to toast them in a saute pan with a little brown butter and toasted pine nuts.

I've had excellent success - both at home and cooking in a restaurant - by pre-cooking then coating the gnocchi with olive oil. You can even refrigerate these overnight and reheat in whatever sauce your using with little to no deterioration

I have also has success freezing them.

BTW - there is an article in the most recent edition of Food and Wine (November Issue) by Paula Wolfert with some great hints on making Gnocci. I actually plan to giver her recipie a shot this weekend.

Thanks for all the suggestions. I also read Thomas Keller's gnocchi recipe (which I may try out instead), and he also praises how easy it is to pre-make and freeze gnocchi. He suggests cooking them, dropping them into an ice bath (for about 2 min), and laying them out on parchment covered baking sheets. Then you can freeze them or refrigerate (if you plan to use that same day). Glad to hear you all agree more or less with that theory. I'm going to see if I can track down that Food & Wine, too.

I wish I'd known about how well they freeze. I'll have to start making batches just to keep them around for quick dinners.

Thanks again.

jbzech wrote:I also read Thomas Keller's gnocchi recipe (which I may try out instead

I've made those once (from Bouchon cookbook) and they were outstanding, if a little time intensive to make (as is everything in that book).