How to Cook Gnocchi with Kids

Gnocchi is a sort-of-pasta made out of potato! It's a very straight forward cooking activity that kids would definitely adore every step.

So here is how we enjoyed the gnocchi making at Carluccio's one fine Saturday morning!

Step 1: Eat breakfast! Well, the kids were supposedly cooking breakfast for us - but they need to nourish themselves first, right? Besides nobody should cook with their stomach empty. Bad for the cook, bad for whoever will eat the food - simply because, nothing might be left to eat! So here goes our little chef eating his breakfast at Carluccios.

Step 2: Prepare the utensils (bowl), ingredients (pre-cooked potato mash, flour and egg) and cute-chef materials (see that chef hat with little drawings on them - they made them as pre-cooking activity! Releases the stress of away from cooking. 

Step 3: Knead the potato mix! Mash away, babies! This activity is great for kids to learn texture through sense of touch. Gotta love the multi-sensory things going on here for kids development. For sure, my kids will be going to be successful - thanks cooking classes! 

Step 4: Time to do some more serious kneading of the potatoes  - until the kids are complaining, which might take more than thirty minutes so for sure, there's some homogenous mixture and good quiet time for breakfast for parents. Weeee! 

Step 5: Remove the mixture from the bowl. And then knead the mixture some more!  

Step 6: Time to cut and roll!  For my pre-schooler, we were discussing the concept of "long and short" during this fun activity. For my key stage 1 student, we were discussing the concept of "fractions - quarters, 1/10 and so on." It is really fun taking the classroom out of loop when learning! 

And then we sing - rolling, rolling, rolling!... la la la 

Step 7: Bond with the Chef while cutting the rolls! 

Step 8: The gnocchi is now ready for the desired sauces! Pose with the proud dad!

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Step 9: Now toss with your favorite sauce - tomato, cream or pesto! Serve immediately. 

Step 9: Enjoy eating! 

Step 10: Reward the kids for completing the lesson - pose with Chef with Certificate of Completion!

We should do this activity again! If not at home, Carluccios is really a very homey place to make kids appreciate Italian food - eating and cooking alike.


Keep exploring!