These took about five minutes to assemble and were easy to cook - once they floated to the surface of my boiling water they were done. I served these with pea shoots and mint because I have reached that point in the winter where I crave fresh tasting green things but these gnudi would be delicious in a stew, a bolognese, or - in smaller sizes than the golf ball ones that I made here - as an interesting addition to soups. I will definitely be attempting that soon so stay tuned.
This recipe made 9 golf ball sized gnudi, I would aim for slightly smaller than that for an even 10. These are filling - I was stuffed to the gills after 3 and L. managed the rest and didn't snack for the rest of the evening, rare in the world of teenage boys...
1/2 lb ricotta ( I used sheep's milk ricotta because I like the tang but regular would work as well)
1/2 cup grated Parmesan
1 whole egg and 2 egg yolks
1 tsp ground pepper (I used white because I realized that I have no black pepper but black would probably work even better)
1/4 tsp salt
3 Tbsps flour
1/2 cup corn meal
Line a baking tray with parchment paper. Place the corn meal in the center of the parchment paper.
Measure the ricotta, Parmesan, eggs, pepper and salt into a bowl. Using your hand, mix the ingredients together well, squeezing out the lumps of ricotta between your fingers to get a smooth mixture. You could do this with a fork but where is the fun in that? Also, your end result will not be as smooth as the finger method.
Once you have a smooth mixture, start adding the flour, one tablespoon at a time. You want to use as little as possible and to mix gently now to keep the gnudi light, but you do need the flour to help the gnudi keep their shape. The inspiration recipe below called for 1/2 cup of flour but I found that my dough started to come together into a fairly cohesive ball after 3 tablespoons of flour. This could be because of my additional egg yolk and the fact that I upped the Parmesan.
Once your dough has started to form a cohesive ball, shape it into equal sized dumplings. As you form each one, drop it in the corn meal on the parchment paper and roll to coat it well on all sides. Make sure that each finished gnudi is sitting on a bit of the corn meal and not directly on the parchment paper.
Place in the freezer for 30 minutes to set the gnudi and make cooking easier.
Bring a pot of salted water to a rolling boil and then lower the heat so that the water is gently bubbling. Remove the gnudi from the freezer, roll in the cornmeal remaining on the parchment paper one more time and gently lower into the bubbling water.
Cook until all of the gnudi rise to the surface and float on the top, about 6 to 8 minutes, By this time, the external cornmeal coat will have washed off and, instead of the yellow balls of goodness pictured above you will have creamy white pillows of deliciousness with which to work!
Remove the gnudi to a paper towel lined plate to drain and serve as you desire. Mine, as pictured below were served with pea shoots wilted in a little butter with the addition of some chopped mint and lashings of gated Parmesan.
Inspiration recipe, here.
