Ricotta gnocchi

From Burden's Landing
  • I've made this Epicurious recipe to pretty pleasing results. I don't usually make the sauce in the recipe. Instead, I prefer to eat the gnocchi in puttanesca sauce or a simple marinara.
  • These gnocchi are not like potato gnocchi; they're more like dumplings (of the chicken and dumpling variety). Then again, if you can manage to minimize the amount of flour you use, maybe they'd be lighter in texture.
  • The spinach ricotta gnocchi require significantly more work, but they pack a more nutritious punch, and they also look a little more festive with those flecks of green.

Ingredients

  • 2 cups whole-milk ricotta (1 pound)
  • 2 large eggs, lightly beaten
  • 1-1/2 cups grated Parmigiano-Reggiano (3 ounces)
  • 1/4 tsp grated nutmeg
  • 1-1/4 cups all-purpose flour

Directions

1. Stir together ricotta, eggs, 1 cup cheese, nutmeg, and 1/4 teaspoon each of salt and pepper. Add flour, stirring to form a soft, wet dough.

2. Shape dough on a well-floured surface with lightly floured hands into 2 (1-inch-thick) ropes. Cut crosswise into 1-inch pieces with a lightly floured knife. Put in 1 layer on a lightly floured parchment-lined baking sheet.

3. Cook gnocchi in 2 batches in a pasta pot of boiling salted water (3 tablespoons salt for 6 quarts water), adding a few at a time to pot and stirring occasionally, until cooked through (cut one in half to check), 3 to 4 minutes per batch. Lift out with a slotted spoon and drain in colander.

Spinach Ricotta Gnocchi

I got this recipe for gnudi from amxin07 of Planworld. I mistakenly used a whole 15-ounce container of ricotta rather than using a 1/2 pound, and the dough was very, very wet. I ended up using probably about 1-1/2 cups of flour, if not 2 cups, total. I also added about 1/3 cup of freshly grated parmesan. (I'd have added more, but I got tired of grating.) Next time, I would strain the ricotta and try squeezing the spinach even further. This recipe made enough gnocchi for eight servings in a batch of simple marinara.