gnocchi redux

On to the second style of gnocchi.  This time, ricotta and spinach gnocchi -- also known as gnudi, which literally means "naked" because they resemble the filling for a ravioli, without the pasta dough.  Research lead me to several different methods for making the gnocchi, and in the end, I combined a couple of different recipes, primarily one from Cook's Illustrated, and one from The Italian Cookng Encyclopedia.  From the ICE, I used the addition of spinach and multiple herbs.  From CI, I used the addition of toasted bread crumbs.  In the end, I used 16 ounces of ricotta, drained in a cheese-cloth-lined seive for a couple of hours in the fridge, a 9 ounce bag of spinach, half a cup of toasted bread crumbs, about 2/3 cup of flour, a cup of parmesan,  salt, pepper, grated nutmeg, a few leaves of basil, four cloves of garlic, and a handful of Italian parsley.  I tamed the harsh garlic bite by microwaving the four cloves for 15 seconds on high.

bread crumbs, parm, herbs and sweated garlic

go in a processor to be ground fine

The steamed, and thoroughly dry spinach are then added 

with an egg, and chopped fine

Once that is all combined, add in a couple of pinches of salt, a few grates of nutmeg, and a few grinds of pepper.  Combine that with the drained ricotta, and about 2/3 cup of flour.  Park that all in the fridge for at least 30 minutes.

My dough was still pretty wet, but I decided to roll it out in plenty of flour, rather than add more flour to the dough itself.  The decision paid off, in light, airy gnocchi.

ricotta and flour, incorporated by hand

The sticky dough is rolled into ropes, in plenty of flour

then cut into little squares and rested in a flour dusted tray

With all of that flavor in the dumplings, I decided on a simple tomato sauce, which I have talked about here before.  Just garlic, oil, tomato paste, tomatoes,salt and pepper.

Thankfully, the dumplings behaved just as they were supposed to, sinking to the bottom of a pan of simmering water, then floating to the surface after a couple of minutes.  I scooped them out, drained them on a towel, and nestled them on a pool of the sauce.  Garnished with a bit of parm and a sprinkling of fresh parsley, they were as pretty to look at as they were good to eat.

phase two of the gnocchi experiment