There was a lot of ricotta leftover from my adventures with baked ziti, so I thought I’d try making some ricotta gnocchi. See “my verdict” for notes on the process. Serves 4:
Ricotta Gnocchi
- Salt
- One 15-ounce container ricotta cheese, preferably whole milk
- 2 eggs, lightly beaten
- 1¼ cups freshly grated Parmesan, plus more for serving
- Freshly ground black pepper
- ¾ to 1 cup flour
Bring a large pot of salted water to a boil. Combine the ricotta, eggs, and Parmesan in a large bowl, along with some salt and pepper. Add about ½ cup flour and stir; add more flour until the mixture forms a very sticky dough. Scoop up a spoonful of dough and boil it to make sure it will hold its shape; if it does not, stir a bit more flour into the ricotta mixture.
Drop a rounded tablespoon of the gnocchi dough into the boiling water, working in batches so as not to overload the pot.
When the gnocchi rise to the surface, remove with a slotted spoon.
For freezing:
Have a small pot of water boiling to test a gnoccho. Follow the recipe, but instead of boiling the gnocchi, place them on a lightly floured sheet pan that will fit flat in your freezer. Shape the gnocchi into 1” pillows and put them on the sheet pan and put the pan in the freezer. Once the gnocchi are frozen, you can put them in a container or Ziplock bag.
My verdict:
I made these and froze them. There was a lot of ricotta, so I used an extra egg (and they were smallish eggs), but only ended up using about ½ cup of flour and more for dusting the baking sheet. Since the trial gnoccho was fine (and the first rule of making gnocchi, is to not overwork them) I didn’t add any more flour, but when I cooked the batch for dinner, they fell apart. I served them with some pesto and the taste was great, but they looked like white blobs on the plate. Next time I’ll be braver with the flour…
