Ricotta Basil Gnocchi

Submitted by MarraMamba

"I found this on starchefs and what a nice twist to regular spinach/ricotta gnocchi. I think they would be superb with my amazingly simple tomato sauce as well"

 

• Ready In: 35mins
• Ingredients: 8
• Serves: 4-6

ingredients

• 4 ounces fresh basil, stems removed
• 4 ounces spinach leaves, cleaned
• 1 lb ricotta cheese
• 2 eggs
• 3⁄4 cup flour
• sea salt and pepper
• 3 tablespoons butter
• 1⁄2 cup grated parmigiano-reggiano cheese

directions

1. Bring a pot of water to a boil. Submerge the basil and spinach leaves in the water for ten seconds, remove and shock in ice water immediately. Remove from the ice water and squeeze very, very dry. Rough chop with a knife.
2. Place the chopped greens in a food processor along with the egg and a little salt and pepper and chop until a paste forms and no large pieces remain.
3. Place the paste in a bowl along with the ricotta and mix well. Check seasoning, then add the flour. Mix gently until all the flour is incorporated but be careful not to over mix.
4. Bring a large pot of salted water to a boil. Roll the dough into strands about ¾-inch thick and about one foot long on a well-floured cutting board. Cut with a sharp, clean knife in pieces about ¾-inch wide.
5. Drop the gnocchi a few dozen at a time into the boiling salted water. After about one minute, they should float. Remove the gnocchi from the water and place on a pan and drizzle with a little extra virgin olive oil. Continue the process until all of the gnocchi are done. Keep the water hot.
6. Warm a large sauté pan and melt the butter and at the same time drop the gnocchi back in the boiling water for about 30 seconds. Remove the gnocchi from the water and place in the pan. Toss with the butter, adding a few tablespoons of the cooking water to the pan.
7. Remove from the heat, portion into bowls or on plates and sprinkle with freshly grated Parmesan cheese.

Reviews

[KrisLady]

Made for Freezer Tag 2008. First, I'll say that the recipe freezes just fine. I made the gnocchi, placed on a parchment-lined sheet pan, and froze until solid, then bagged. As for the recipe, I suspect there might be some errors. Four ounces of basil struck me as, well, excessive. I mean, that's a LOT of basil! I ended up using a packed 1/4 cup measure, along with 4 ounces by weight of baby spinach. Then there was the egg question - the ingredient list called for 2 eggs, but the directions referred to "the egg" in the singular, which I did not catch until I'd already added both eggs. 2 eggs with just 3/4 c. of flour made the dough far too wet to work. I also added 1/4 cup of parmesan at step "2" as there was no way a paste was ever going to form otherwise. After adding the flour called for, the mixture was still virtually unworkable, so I ended up adding, 1/4 cup at a time, another whole cup of flour, and it was still pretty wet, but I was concerned about the flavor, so I did my best. As noted above, we froze the gnocchi on a sheet pan, then transferred to freezer bags. We cooked them from frozen, and, while they were tasty enough, they were very soft, and the extra flour did detract from the basil and spinach flavors.