Until a couple days ago, if you’d asked me if I would ever consider making gnocchi, I would have said no. It just sounded so complicated and it would have just been one of those things I would order in a restaurant and never attempt at home.
Good thing I changed my mind.
After a little exploring on the internet, I discovered gnudi, which are like gnocchi, but made out of ricotta cheese and are basically the filling for ravioli (hence the name “gnudi,” which means naked).
I looked at a few recipes and saw that the process really wasn’t that hard, so I took the plunge.
Herbed Ricotta Gnudi
Ingredients
2 cups part-skim ricotta
2 egg yolks
1/2 cup shredded Parmesan
1/2 cup flour, plus extra for rolling out gnudi
salt to taste
Italian seasonings to taste
Preparation
Combine ricotta, egg yolks, Parmesan cheese, and seasoning in bowl. Slowly add in flour, stirring only to combine lightly — dough should still be sticky.
Roughly divide the dough into fourths. Place 1/4 dough on floured surface and use both hands to roll into a log.
Cut the log into pillowy pieces.
Place the gnudi on parchment paper while you prepare the rest of the dough.
Once all the gnudi are formed, bring a pot of water to boil, then add the gnudi. Stir once so that they don’t stick to the pan and make sure the water keeps at a rolling boil. After about 2-4 minutes, the gnudi should start floating up to the surface of the pan.
Remove the gnudi with a slotted spoon and serve with your choice of sauce.
While I was boiling the gnudi, I had Mr. Spice saute some shrimp in olive oil and garlic. The plan was to add the gnudi and brown them a bit in the pan with the shrimp, but they ended up sticking a bit to the pan. No biggie. We topped our shrimp and gnudi with crushed red pepper and pesto.
We both liked the way these turned out. I will definitely be making these again and will try different ways to top them.
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I’m not a shrimp fan but I like the sound of these gnudi, I’ve never heard of them before. And I love ricotta, this sounds like an excellent project!
They fell apart – what did I do?
Oh no!
I read in a few places that if the water is boiling too hard, that might make them fall apart. Try lowering the heat slightly.
A couple other things might be making sure the gnocchi/gnudi aren’t too big and playing around with the amount of flour.
That was my first and only effort making them so far, but if I think of anything else I’ll let you know.
thanks
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