For regular food, a serving of gnocchi uses around 7 ounces each plate, which matches roughly 200 grams. That is the amount that I found after checking several sources. As a starter, reduce it to around 4,5 ounces, say 130 grams.

Side dishes for buffet are even smaller commonly between 3 and 4 ounces each person.

How Much Gnocchi to Serve and How to Cook It

Store-bought gnocchi almost do not absorb water during boiling… Only 2 or 3 percent. Homemade however is another case, absorbing more, around 10 to 15 percent, so that the weight after cooking grows clearly.

When you prepare homemade, count also 3 to 5 percnet waste because of slices.

Heavy eaters require roughly 28 percent more than the average. And light eaters? Around 18 percent less.

For children the serving is 55 to 60 percent of the adult regular amount. For 10 guests as regular meal I usually take around 4,4 pounds… That is 2 kilos, or 4 bags each 500 grams.

For 50 people you require 22 pounds. Every 200-gram serving has around 270 calories, with 58 grams of carbs, but only 6 grams of protein and almost 1,5 grams of fat.

Note: This article is based on real research and talks in cooking communities and between food lovers.

Gnocchi form a family of dumpling rolls similar to pasta in Italian cooking. One prepares them from small rolls of dough. The word gnocchi maybe comes from Italian “nocchio”, which means knot in wood, or from “nocca”, which means knuckle.

The word gnocchi simply means rolls, and they have more in common with other European rolls than with classical pasta. Gnocchi and pasta are entirely different foods. Do not fairly expect that someone likes one only because of taste for the other.

Basic recipe for gnocchi mixes flour, potatoes, egg and salt. Some recipes entirely drop the egg, using only fluffy starchy potatoes, tiny amounts of flour and salt. If you add too much flour, the gnocchi become heavy.

But too little flour also gives bad results. To find the write proportion you need practice. Floury potatoes like Maris Piper or King Edward work best.

Ricotta helps so that gnocchi stay light and soft. Even so, removing all possible moisture from the ricotta and potatoes is especially important. If the dough is too wet, one must add too much flour, and the gnocchi become dense and chewy.

Bad gnocchi are heavy, rubbery and stick to the teeth. Good gnocchi are light in the mouth, stay together on the plate, but disappear quickly in the mouth.

Some say gnocchi should be eaten right away as warm as possible. If they cool, they become sticky clumps. Cooking them is simple.

Simply toss them in enough salted hot water. When they float up, they are ready. Remove them with a slotted spoon and mix with the sauce.

Let everything combine, so that the gnocchi get covered equally.

Gnocchi are truly Italian food. In regions like Rome one eats them traditionally on Thursday. Potato gnocchi are especially liked in Abruzzo, Veneto and Lazio.

They form a time-consuming winter dish, sometimes served as a Sunday treat, most commonly with rich, meaty sauce.

So for servings plan around 100 to 150 grams of raw gnocchi each person. Creamy tomato sauce goes well with them. Leafy gnocchi with stuffing, sun-dried tomatoes and onions form a good fast dinner.

Store-bought gnocchi work for fast meals, without needing to freeze before, which makes them handy for times like camping. Pan-fried gnocchi in sharp pesto is another fast option, with whole cooking in around seven minutes. Gnocchi also canbe stuffed with Gorgonzola or covered with sauce from butternut squash and spinach.