Think On It

Gnocchetti di spinaci e ricotta

August 15th, 2008

This is something different from the usual. This is a recipe from an Italian magazine called Sale e Pepe, and comes from an article all about different ricottas and what to d with them. This is not prettiest thing in the article, but that is a torte that cooks for an hour and my voices told me “Forget that!”

I didn’t even know what ricotta was for several decades. I certainly didn’t know there were many different kinds and from many different places so that each had its best use and was better avoided for some other uses. Now I do. I’ll recover.

This recipe called for ricotta from Lombardia made of goat’s milk. I still have never seen such a thing. I used sheep’s milk ricotta instead, the kind they scoop up fresh rather than from a plastic bin. I thought maybe it would be goatier that way. It’s very nicely sheepy, I must say. I also got tired of grating Parmigiano, so I used some pecorino and some provolone as well. I still ended up with 70 grams, which is quite a lot. You may want to try this pasta using a ricotta from the supermarket which would almost always be cow’s milk, but more and more there are small cheesemakers who make goat and sheep cheese and they may also be using the whey to make ricotta. Ask around. The more we support those kinds of small efforts, the more of them we will have at hand when we need them.

It’s called gnocchetti, or little gnocchi, but I think it is just as much a form of gnudi, which is ravioli filling without the pasta. Since I think that way, I will be showing you some other ways to use this filling in future posts. I have made three things of it already.

Gnocchetti di Spinaci for 4 people

500 g or a pound of spinach, washed , boiled 5 minutes, drained, squeezed and chopped fine
350 g or 12 ounces of ricotta from some domestic animal
3 eggs
4 tablespoons flour
70 g or 2.5 ounces of grated Parmigiano Reggiano or a mix of grated hard cheeses
nutmeg
salt and pepper
60 g or 2 ounces of cold butter
fresh herb sprigs or leaves
more grated cheese for garnish, if you please

Do cook the spinach as stated, even if you use blanched or frozen spinach, or it may be tough when done. These cook very fast and the leaves may not have time to get done if they are not pre-cooked well. I wrung it out in a clean towel to get it very dry.
Even so, the recipe has you cook it a bit after all this attention in a non-stick pan to dry it out even more. Do not add oil or anything to it at that point.

Put the spinach in a big bowl and add the ricotta, the eggs, the flour and the 70 g of grated cheese, season it with some nutmeg and some black pepper. The recipe says to add salt, but mine became to salty when I did. All that cheese has salt in it, of course. I say taste before adding salt, and that will also be helpful in deciding how much nutmeg. They don’t say and I won’t, because freshly grated it took only a bit, but from a bottle it needed quite a lot more. I also found that grinding black pepper over the finished gnocchetti was much nicer than putting it inside.

Mix all this up really well, then put it into the fridge for an hour or more.

Bring a big pot of slightly salted water to a boil, then reduce it to a simmer. These are soft and delicate and a hard boil will shatter them. Even at a simmer the water soon looks like soup.

The original recipe tells you to fill a pastry bag with the mixture and using a large holed tip, express it into the simmering water, cutting it every 2-3 cm. I say the goat is going to come back for her ricotta before you will ever get all this into the water. Oh, and they also say to take them out when they rise to the surface. Three hands, anyone?

What worked for me was taking small teaspoonsful of the cold mixture and forming little balls with it. I tossed in as many as equaled the area of the pot and while they cooked formed some more of them. For a different recipe I did use the pastry bag, but with no tip, because otherwise the spinach clogged it and I had to cut it with scissors and then poke it to make the next dose come out. I reckon pick your fights. It was worth it for the other recipe, it isn’t worth it if you are going to boil them. Simmer them. Anyway, I also thought they needed a few seconds more cooking after they came to the surface, because this is refrigerated dough and may still be cold in the center when the outside is properly cooked. I liked it better that way, anyway.

Before they come off the cooker– here is where you could use a fourth hand– arrange a pat of butter and fresh herb leaves in pasta bowls. Sage is the go-to but I used basil because it is full summer. Time enough to use sage when the basil is all blackened and dead from frost. Sob. Ladle hot and freshly cooked gnocchetti over the butter and herbs. Eat immediately while still smoking hot. You may allow extra cheese, I did not want it.

This is an intensely cheesy dish. The goatier or sheepier your ricotta, the more interesting the flavor will be. I loved it once I whipped the problems in making it, and my next door neighbors did, too. The herbs and butter are just the best with this– I would never sauce it. It’s meant to be the first course of an Italian dinner, but with all that cheese protein, I would have no problem at all serving it as the center to a meal, and it’s vegetarian, too.

The magazine article recommends a white wine from Franciacorta with this dish. I drank a rosé from Sardegna. It was here, it was good, I am way too practical.

I am now sending this off to Ruth for Presto Pasta Night which is this week at Ruth’s Once Upon A Feast. I’m tickled to say that I will be hosting in October!

The reality of cooking this dish this week is this: it is hot here. I did a small part of the cooking and went and took a rest. I did a bit more and watched some Olympics. I even washed up all the tools at some point. I did make several things with the dough, but I made them day by day, because who could eat all that? As soon as I photographed that smokin’ bowl of pasta, I ate half and I went to bed for a nap. Take it easy. Enjoy summer. Today is a big holiday here and I hope you are having some Ferragosto fun wherever you are. Mangiate!

Entry Filed under: Italy, pasta, primo, vegetarian, Italian food, cucina, recipes, cookery