Wow is this easy! I believe that traditional gnocchi is made from potatoes and this is made with cheese, maybe that's why I fell in love with this recipe. Another note, my husband /hates/ Ricotta Cheese so I was hesitant for a second, then I thought... nah, he'll have to tough it out. Well he loved my gnocchi too! So it doesn't have the crumbly ricotta taste that we think of with lasagna or other pasta recipe. If you aren't a fan of ricotta give this a try anyway. You should be pleasantly surprised!
Without further ado here is the best homemade Gnocchi that I have ever made (so it is the first time I've ever made it... details, details.) I think you'll love it too.
You will need:
1 15oz container of Ricotta Cheese
1 large egg
1 tsp Olive Oil
about 2 cups of flour
3/4 tsp salt
fresh cracked pepper
thyme, oregano, basil or other favorite Italian spices (fresh or dried) to your taste
In a medium bowl, whisk together the ricotta cheese, olive oil, egg, salt, freshly cracked pepper and other spices.
Add the flour, 1/2 cup at a time, until it forms a soft sticky dough (about 1 1/2 cups)
Turn the dough out onto a floured surface and knead in about another 1/2 cup of flour or until the dough no longer sticks to your hands. The dough should still be very soft in texture.
Divide the dough into six pieces. Roll each piece out into a rope about 1 inch thick. [You know when you were a kid and loved to make snakes with play-dough? Yah, me too :)]
Cut the rope into 1 inch pieces.
If you are cooking the gnocchi now, begin boiling a large pot of water. When the water is boiling vigorously, drop the dough pieces into the water. As the gnocchi boil they will begin to rise to the surface. Once all of them are floating on top, let them boil for about 30 seconds to one minute more to ensure thorough cooking, a total of about 5 minutes. Drain in a colander.
Top drained gnocchi with your favorite sauce or garlic butter, salt, and pepper. Enjoy!
I had bought a very large tub of Ricotta Cheese so I had enough cheese to make a triple batch to freeze some for later dinners. If you do the same instead of boiling all of your newly formed gnocchi place what you want to save on a parchment lined baking sheet and pop it in the freezer (uncooked). After an hour in the freezer, transfer them to a zip lock bag and keep in the freezer until you're ready to eat them. To prepare from frozen, simply drop the frozen gnocchi in boiling water and boil until they float, it doesn't take that much longer about 6 or 7 minutes to cook.
Enjoy!
- Leanne from MilitaryAvenue.com
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Last night I had gnochi for the first time at ZaZa's, just outside of Chicago.. It was crab gnochi, covered by a light tomato cream sauce. I never figured out where the crab was. Do you think it was blended into the gnochi? I had expected it to be a filling, but realize that wouldn't work now that I see how it's made.
ReplyDeleteThanks for the recipe. I can't wait to try it when I get home.