This was my first time making gnocchi and it was delicious! They don’t look neat and tidy, but man, did they taste good. They were also was very easy. I had only 200g of ricotta so I basically multiplied all the ingredients by 80% and used a small egg yolk instead of a standard large. It was seriously rich, but oh so good. I messed up on the browned butter sauce, but it was still good.
Just a reminder about food posts. I do not bake or cook as often as I use to, but I still like it a lot. The blog posts are a way for me to evaluate recipes and techniques for future reference.
Onto the yummy stuff.
Quick Ricotta gnocchi
From Delicious Days.
Ingredients (for 2):
250 g Ricotta
1 egg yolk (M-L)
1/4-1/2 tsp fine sea salt
30 g Parmigiano (or Pecorino), freshly grated
50-75 g all-purpose flour, extra for dusting the dough/board
serve with tomato sauce or any kind of pesto
Sauce:
50g of butter
A few sage leaves (5-6?)
1. Discard any excess liquid that the Ricotta’s packaging may contain, then add Ricotta cheese, egg yolk, salt and freshly grated Parmigiano into a large bowl. Mix well with a wooden or regular spoon. Now add the flour and stir in briefly, just until combined – the dough will still be quite sticky. (Of course you can add more flour at this point, but keep in mind, that the more flour you use, the denser the gnocchi become in the end. And you want them to be as light & fluffy as possible, with a velvet-like texture.)
2. Forming these gnocchi is the slightly tricky step, this is the technique that works best for me: Generously flour a board, take a big tablespoon of the dough and scoop it onto the board. It gets dusted with flour (dust your hands generously, too!), before rolling it into a finger-thick roll. Cut it into little pillows (stick the knife’s blade into the flour to prevent it from sticking to the dough). Then place each gnoccho on a floured board or parchment paper lined baking tray. Continue quickly with the next step, otherwise they will get soggy and stick to the paper/board anyway.
3. Meanwhile bring a large pot of water to a boil, add a generous pinch of salt and reduce heat until the water bubbles lightly. Add the gnocchi and stir once, so they don’t stick to the bottom – then let cook until they start floating on top. Depending on their size this may take 2 to 4 minutes. Take out with a skimmer and serve with a sauce or pesto of your choice.
Browned sage butter: Wash and pat dry the fresh sage leaves, then stack and cut them into thin chiffonade. Meanwhile melt the butter in a pan over low to medium heat, add the sage chiffonade and sauté until the sage has become crisp and the butter has gained a golden brown hue and nutty flavor (but don’t let it burn!). Spoon over the gnocchi and add some freshly ground black pepper, grated parmesan.
More notes: I put the gnoccho in the freezer after I made them since I didn’t eat them right away. I am aware you can freeze gnoccho quickly after rolling and cutting them out. I also tried to form them on the fork, but that was too time consuming and uglifying. The pillows are fine by me.