Nhoque do Dia 29

Ingredients

Equipment Needed

• •Heavy 4-liter pot for potatoes
• •Wide 30 cm heavy skillet or braiser for the ragu
• •Potato ricer or sturdy masher
• •Bench scraper or dull table knife
• •Rimmed baking sheet for shaped nhoque
• •Slotted spoon

Instructions

1. 1

   Start the refogado

   Warm the oil in a wide heavy pan over medium heat. Add the onion and carrot, if using, and cook until the onion goes soft and see-through and the carrot loses its raw smell, about 6 minutes. Add the garlic for one minute, just until you can smell it. This is where the ragu starts tasting like food instead of tomato from a can, so don't rush it.

   Garlic goes in after the onion because it burns faster. Burnt garlic is bitter, and it will follow you all the way to the table like a bad decision.
2. 2

   Brown the meat

   Raise the heat to medium-high and add the ground beef in a loose layer. Let it sit for a minute before breaking it up, so the bottom can dourar and take on real color. If your pan is small, brown the meat in two batches. Crowd the pan and the meat releases water, the heat drops, and you get grey meat boiling in its own juice instead of flavor.

3. 3

   Simmer the ragu

   Stir in the salt, pepper, and tomato paste, and cook for 1 minute until the paste darkens a shade and sticks a little to the pan. Add the crushed tomatoes, water, and bay leaf, scraping the bottom to pull up the browned bits. Lower the heat and simmer uncovered for 30 to 40 minutes, stirring now and then, until the sauce looks thick and glossy and a spoon leaves a slow path through it. Watery sauce slides off nhoque. A thick one clings.

4. 4

   Cook the potatoes

   Put the whole unpeeled potatoes in a large pot, cover with cold water by 1 inch, and bring to a gentle boil. Cook until a thin knife slides through the thickest potato without a hard center, about 25 to 35 minutes depending on size. Keep them whole and in their skins because cut potatoes drink water, and wet potatoes ask for more flour. More flour means heavy nhoque, and nobody waited for the 29th to eat a potato brick.

5. 5

   Dry and mash

   Drain the potatoes, return them to the empty hot pot for 1 minute, and shake them gently so the surface dries. Peel them while warm, then pass through a potato ricer or mash very smooth onto a clean counter or tray. Spread the mash out and let it cool until warm, not hot, about 10 minutes. Dry, smooth potato takes less flour and gives you tender nhoque; lumpy mash gives you lumpy dough, and hot mash can make the egg misbehave.

6. 6

   Make the dough

   Sprinkle the potato with the dough salt and nutmeg, if using. Pour the beaten egg over it, scatter 1 cup flour on top, and fold everything together with your hands or a bench scraper just until a soft dough forms. It should feel tender and slightly tacky, not wet paste and not stiff bread dough. Add extra flour 1 tablespoon at a time only if it truly sticks to everything. Flour is help, not furniture.

7. 7

   Shape the nhoque

   Dust the counter lightly with flour and cut the dough into 6 pieces. Roll each piece into a rope about as thick as your thumb, then cut into 3/4-inch pillows. Leave them plain or roll each one gently over a fork for ridges. The ridges aren't decoration; they hold the ragu. Set the pieces on a floured tray in one layer so they don't glue themselves together while you're feeling proud.

8. 8

   Boil in batches

   Bring a large pot of water to a lively boil and add the coarse salt. Drop in the nhoque in batches, enough to cover the surface without piling up, and stir once gently so they don't stick to the bottom. When they float, wait 30 seconds, then lift them out with a slotted spoon. Floating tells you the starch has set and the center is cooked. Leaving them too long makes them swollen and gummy.

   Do not rinse nhoque. That little starch on the surface helps the sauce cling, and a gente wants sauce on the nhoque, not a red puddle underneath it.
9. 9

   Sauce and serve

   Pull the bay leaf from the ragu. Spoon a little sauce into a wide pan, add the cooked nhoque, and fold gently until each piece is coated. If the sauce is too tight, add 1 or 2 tablespoons of the nhoque cooking water and shake the pan until it loosens and shines. Before serving, tuck a clean bill under each plate if you're doing the Dia 29 ritual. Add cheese and parsley, eat the first seven standing if that's your house rule, then sit down and resolver o jantar like someone who knows the stove belongs to them.

Chef Tips

• •Buy floury potatoes if you can. In Brazil, batata Asterix is the good choice because it cooks drier than the very watery white potato. Dry potato means less flour, and less flour means tender nhoque.
• •The shortcut I allow: canned crushed tomatoes or passata for the ragu. They are tomatoes preserved at the right time, not a powder wearing a fake mustache. The shortcut I refuse: instant mashed potato flakes and powdered sauce. That's not saving dinner, that's letting a factory write the recipe.
• •Do not knead this dough like bread. Bring it together and stop. The more you work it, the more the flour toughens, and suddenly your lucky nhoque has the personality of an eraser.
• •Freeze raw shaped nhoque on a floured tray until firm, then bag it. Boil from frozen in batches. When a freezer has nhoque and feijão, a house is never really out of food.
• •If you're making the money ritual, keep the bills under the plate, not near the food. Luck can be messy; hygiene doesn't have to be.

Advance Preparation

• •The ragu can be made up to 2 days ahead and kept in the fridge, or frozen for up to 3 months. Reheat gently and loosen with a splash of water.
• •Shape raw nhoque up to 2 hours ahead and keep it on a floured tray, uncovered, in the fridge. Longer than that, freeze it instead, because the dough softens as it waits.
• •Set aside clean bills or small paper notes before dinner if you're doing the Dia 29 ritual. Wrap them in a napkin or envelope and tuck them under the plates.

Frequently Asked Questions

Nutrition Information

1 serving (about 640g)