Ingredients
Peel the potatoes and boil them. Mash or sieve them and then form a well in the middle where you can add the egg, salt and flour. Start mixing the ingredients until they form a soft dough and then cut it into small pieces, forming little sausage shapes out of them. Cut these shapes into pieces around a centimetre and a half long and then drag them along the tines of a fork so that the ridges hold the sauce better when cooked.
Boil the milk and crumble in the castelmagno cheese. Leave the mixture to rest while you melt the butter and then add flour and salt. When everything has completely melted, pour the milk and cheese mixture into the pan, and stir until the various different ingredients have blended.
Throw the gnocchi into a large amount of salted boiling water – they’re ready when they float to the surface – and then drain, mix in the sauce and serve.
Castelmagno is a PDO-certified blue cheese (though it is usually found only in the white version nowadays) that has been produced since the 13th century in the town of that name as well as in the towns of Pradleves and Monterosso Grana. It is made from cow’s milk and a small quantity of goat’s milk and sheep’s milk. It is matured in natural surroundings for at least four months. Alpine castelmagno is protected by a Slow Food presidium and is made from June to September in malghe, Alpine farmsteads, at an altitude of over 1600 metres above sea level. No yeasts are added and the milk comes from two milking sessions from free-range cows.