Recipe: Gnocchi di Susine (Plum-Stuffed Potato Dumplings)

This recipe is from Regional Foods of Northern Italy.

GNOCCHI DI SUSINE
(PLUM-STUFFED POTATO DUMPLINGS)

"Italian plums are tiny dark-purple-skinned with yellow flesh and are sweet in autumn.

(In this recipe), Using the common "baking" variety of potato, and hence baking rather than boiling them yields a higher ratio of potato to water, which then requires less flour to build the dough. The texture remains airy and the flavor is luscious."

THE DUMPLINGS:
2 1/2 pounds baking potatoes (or 2 1/2 pounds white-skinned boiling potatoes-the older the better as, with age, they will have given up much of their water)
7 to 8 ounces all-purpose flour (1 1/2 to 1 3/4 cups_
2 teaspoons sea salt

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F. Scrub the potatoes, dry them and pierce them. Bake them for 1 hour (if you are using boiling potatoes, steam them over boiling water), cool slightly, then peel and mash. In a large bowl, combine the potatoes with 1 1/2 cups of the flour and the salt, constructing a mixture that is soft but substantive enough to mold, adding more flour if the paste is too wet. Set aside.

THE FILLING:
1/3 cup poppy seeds
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
18 ripe Italian plums, halved and stoned
1/2 cup freshly made white bread crumbs, toasted
4 ounces sweet butter, melted

Mix the poppy seeds with 1/4 cup of the sugar. Mix the rest of the sugar with the cinnamon. Stuff one half of each of the plums with a little of the poppy seed mixture, replacing its other half.

Using 2 or 3 generous tablespoonfuls of the potato mixture, enclose the plum, forming a somewhat oval-shaped dumpling. When the gnocchi are formed, cover with a clean kitchen towel and hold in a cool, unrefrigerated space for up to 4 hours.

Then cook the dumplings in 6 to 8 quarts of boiling, salted water, scooping them out with a slotted spoon as they rise to the surface of the water.

Serve them in warmed soup plates, dusting each portion with the toasted bread crumbs and cinnamon/sugar, and drizzling each with the melted butter.