The Italian word “gnudi” means nudes in English and are called so b/c they are basically ravioli filling minus the pasta wrapper, with a little flour added so they won’t fall apart. Like gnocchi, they are dumplings and have a soft, pillowy (is that a word?) texture but are harder to mess up 🙂 I broke in my new food processor with this one, yay!
Time: 30 minutes         Serves: 4-6
Ingredients
- 1 cup fresh ricotta cheese, drained for about an hour
- 1 egg shopping list
- 1/4 cup grated Parmesan cheese (plus more for garnish depending on how you serve them)
- pinch of grated nutmeg
- salt & white pepper to taste
- 3 cups baby spinach leaves, stems removed
- 1/2 cup AP flour, divided
- 2 tbsp fresh herbs, optional (I used basil and chives)
How to make it
- Bring a medium pot of salted water to boil. Drop in spinach leaves and let poach for 1-2 minutes, just until wilted. Remove from water and drain well. Once cool enough to handle, chop finely & squeeze moisture out.
- Bring a large pot of salted water to boil.
- Place drained ricotta, egg, Parmesan, spinach, nutmeg, salt & pepper (and herbs if using) into bowl of food processor. Turn on and process until well incorporated.
- Take 1/4 cup of flour and add in 3 batches, pulsing processor with each addition until almost incorporated.
- Flour your workspace and a pie plate or similar with remaining flour.
- Scrape dough off sides and out of processor bowl. Knead dough on floured surface 5-10 times.
- Split into two parts. Roll each into a rope about about 20 inches long and 1 inch wide.
- Cut into 1 inch pieces.
- Place into floured pie plate and toss to cover all sides.
- At this point I attempted to make decorative indentations with a fork, but it was not as pretty as I’d have liked and not necessary 🙂 (By the way, do you see that cutie in the bottom right corner?)
- Carefully place gnudi into pot of boiling, a few at a time using a slotted spoon. Do not overcrowd the pot, work in batches if needed. Cook for 4-6 minutes. Carefully remove with slotted spoon onto paper towel lined plate .
- Keep warm with a foil tent if needed.
- I served the gnudi with Tomato Butter Sauce, sprinkled with more grated Parmesan.
- I ate 10, and this recipe yields about 40.
- I froze half of the batch. After tossing each dumpling in flour I placed them on a parchment lined baking sheet and put it into the freezer. After an hour I transferred them to a plastic freezer bag for later use. I will place them into boiling water from frozen to cook, not defrost them beforehand.
- These may also be prepared in other ways. For example, with herbed brown butter.
detroittokyo 
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