His gnocchi are made from two ingredients: potatoes and flour. Their preternatural lightness comes from roasting and cutting the former in such a way that obviates the need for more than the bare minimum of the latter. Too much flour (or heaven forbid, egg) and the gnocchi would fall somewhere between ordinary and leaden. Too little and they’d break apart in boiling water instead of liquefying the moment they hit your tongue. They need nothing more than what they get: some butter, Parmesan, maybe a little sage.