ricotta gnocchi recipe

For 2015 I decided to try and cook more and with greater variety. This week I made gnocchi for the first time! My mom and I made a lot of pasta at the beginning of this summer, but as I do not have a pasta maker here, I decided to try a style that is easier to do by hand.

Ricotta Gnocchi

We used to eat gnocchi at "Gracious Dinner", a fancy supper put on at holidays by Mount Holyoke. Traditionally gnocchi is made with mashed potatoes, but because I am always looking for a way to eat more cheese, I decided to try an easier version with a ricotta base.

Made three servings: two large supper portions and a left-overs lunch the next day.

Ingredients: 

1 egg

1 egg yolk

2 cups of ricotta

1/2 tsp black pepper

1/2 cup grated parmesan

1/2 tsp salt

1 cup of flour

pasta sauce

olive oil

extra cheese for serving :)

How to make:

Whisk the egg and the egg yolk in a large bowl (I put the egg white aside in the fridge to save fora later recipe). Add in the ricotta, pepper, salt, and park - mix well. Add flour and stir until just combined and the dough forms a ball that starts to lift from the sides of the bowl. If the dough seems too wet and isn't becoming a ball, add a little more flour as necessary. 

This next part was easiest with Keegan's help. I dusted a cookie sheet with flour while he used two spoons to shape the dough into ovals. The ones he made were about as long as my thumb but because our frying pans as small, later on I ended up halving the balls. After he had deposited the rounded dough on the sheet, I rolled them so they were coated in flour and then set them aside.

This is definitely possible to do on your own - have two cookie sheets, both with flour. Make and place all your gnocchi balls on one and then roll them after they are all formed using the second sheet. 

rolling rolling rolling

tiny football pastas

Cook the gnocchi in a large pot of boiling water, I always salt or use olive oil in my water when making pasta so that the pieces are less likely to stick together. The gnocchi float up to the surface pretty fast but boil them for 5-6 minutes to ensure that they are fully cooked.

While the pasta was cooking I re-heated some pasta sauce I had made last week and added half a can of pre-made sauce so that we would have enough. We often eat Trader Joe's brand tomato basil pasta sauce, but my all time favorite canned sauce is Rao's :)) If I am making pasta sauce I like to use Pomi diced tomatoes.

I added spinach for iron and health! Tomato sauce is a great vehicle for vegetables.

While the pasta is cooking, heat a tablespoons or so of olive oil in a large skillet. After 5-6 minutes remove the gnocchi and transfer to a plate. When you have them all out of the water, place them in the pan and lightly brown on both sides. -- I struggled with this, everything sticks to my pans. They were still good, even though the "browning" process didn't really happen!! 

…stuck to the pan...

If you want, you can add the pasta sauce to the pan after you have browned the gnocchi and let it heat top that way - cuts down on dishes.

I thought that they were really delicious that night but actually they were even better the next day! I liked the day-old texture better personally. Right after being cooked the gnocchi were soft and almost crumbly, while the next day they were firmer and easier to cut into distinct pieces.

I had my left overs with pesto, grape tomatoes, and spinach!

cook often, eat well

xoxo