Spinach and ricotta gnocchi! Italian dumplings made with ricotta cheese, spinach, flour and egg, served with a tomato and goat cheese sauce.
BE PICTURED IN; CHARACTERIZED IN:
Have you ever made potato gnocchi?
What you want are light, fluffy dumpling pillows. What we often get are dense, chewy balls of dough.
Gnocchi with ricotta cheese are much more forgiving than the potato version. The dough will hold together better and the result will likely be pillowy rather than chewy.
I was taught this approach by Biba Caggiano, a wonderful local Italian chef, who showed me that the trick to light gnocchi is how to roll it out.
You want a light touch that gently stretches the dough outward as you roll it into shape. A strong touch compresses the dough.
The sauce is simple, just tomato and goat cheese with a touch of garlic. But you can use any sauce you like with the gnocchi.
Spinach and ricotta gnocchi
ingredients
- gnocchi
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3 ounces fresh or frozen spinach
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1 egg
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2 teaspoons of salt
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1 1/2 pounds whole milk ricotta cheese, trimmed of excess moisture
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1/3 cup finely grated Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese
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1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
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pinch of nutmeg
- sauce
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1 28-ounce can mashed tomatoes (or whole tomatoes, breaking up as you add them to the pan)
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4 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
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2 garlic cloves, peeled
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Salt
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2 ounces goat cheese
special equipment
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food processor
method
gnocchi
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Blanch spinach and squeeze out excess moisture:
Half fill a medium saucepan with water and heat until simmering. Add the spinach and cook until tender, about 1 minute. drain.
Allow the spinach to cool enough to handle, then squeeze out as much moisture as possible. You can also use a potato ricer if you have one to squeeze the excess moisture out of the spinach.
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Prepare the gnocchi batter:
Place the spinach, egg, salt and half the ricotta in a food processor. Pulse until fully blended.
Pour the mixture into a large bowl, stir in the remaining ricotta and Parmesan cheese. Stir a pinch of nutmeg into the flour.
Add the flour by hand, starting with half the flour. Knead everything with your hands until the mixture comes together as a dough.
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Knead the dough:
Place the dough on a lightly floured, smooth, clean surface. Knead lightly for about a minute, adding extra flour as needed if the dough sticks too easily to the board or hands. (If you wrap the dough in plastic at this point and refrigerate it for an hour, it will be easier to roll out.)
When the dough is smooth and pliable and still a little sticky, divide it into 4 portions, each the size of an orange.
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Roll out the dough into long strands, cut into pieces:
Lightly flour your hands. Using both hands and a light touch, roll out the dough in a back and forth motion, starting in the center and stretching out the dough to form a roll.
This is the hard part. You shouldn’t apply so much pressure that you’re squeezing the dough, but you need enough pressure to form a strand of dough.
The trick is to stretch the dough sideways as you roll. Once the segment you’re working on is about a foot long, you may find it easier to cut it in half and then start working on that smaller segment.
Roll out the dough until the roll is about the size of a middle finger. (Note that if your hands or the board are a little too floured, you may not have enough traction between your skin and the dough to slightly stretch it laterally.) Cut each roll into 1-inch pieces.
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Create indentations with a fork:
Hold a fork at a 45% angle, tines down, on the countertop with the curved part of the fork facing away from you. Starting with the curved underside of the fork, push each piece of dough up the length of the tines. Let the gnocchi fall back down.
This is a fairly quick motion, the result being a dimple of the fork tines on one side of the gnocchi and a dimple of your fingertip on the other side.
Place the gnocchi on a lightly floured baking sheet. At this point they can be cooked or kept in the fridge for several hours or overnight.
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Cooking gnocchi in boiling water:
To cook the gnocchi, fill a large, wide saucepan halfway with water. Bring to a boil, add 1 teaspoon of salt per liter of water.
Once the salt has dissolved, gently add the gnocchi to the water, one at a time. Try to do this in such a way that the gnocchi don’t fall on top of each other, but lie in a single layer on the bottom of the pan.
After a few minutes, while the gnocchi are cooking, they will rise to the surface of the water. Remove risen gnocchi from the pot with a slotted spoon and place in a serving bowl.
Sometimes the gnocchi can get a bit sticky at the bottom. If you suspect this, give them a little nudge to loosen them. If you remove some gnocchi, you can add a few more to the pan.
The sauce
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While you cook the gnocchi, prepare the sauce. Heat oil in a medium-sized saucepan over medium-high heat. Add the garlic cloves and cook until lightly browned on all sides. Remove and discard the garlic.
Add the tomatoes (including any canned juices) all at once (be careful, they can cause the oil to splatter when the tomatoes hit the pan). Once the mixture boils, reduce the heat to minimum and let it simmer, uncovered, for 10 to 15 minutes. With salt. Stir occasionally. Use a potato masher to break up firm chunks of tomatoes, you want a coarse puree.
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Once the sauce is reduced to a medium-thick consistency, add the goat cheese and stir until well combined. Add more salt to taste.
Serve the gnocchi with the sauce and extra grated Parmesan.
Recipe adapted from Sacramento’s chef Biba Caggiano.
Links:
Zuni Cafe Ricotta Gnocchi – Another version of ricotta gnocchi where the gnocchi are fried in a sage butter
