I taught Anne and Denise (nee Joffre) how to make this recently at a Cooking Class at my house. Their mother Eleanor and my grandmother Julia were good friends and Denise was in regular touch with my Great Aunt Josie.

The recipe is easy to remember, with the proportions being 1/1/1. One egg, one cup of flour and 1 cup of ricotta. A recipe I read online said to drain the ricotta in a sieve for half an hour before using, but I’m pretty sure my Aunt Josie didn’t do that. It also said to use 00 flour, but I just used All-Purpose.

You want the dough to be a little wet and sticky, but able to form it into a ball and roll it with a floured rolling pin. If it’s too wet, add a little more flour. To freeze these gnocchi, place on a floured cookie sheet and put in the freezer for an hour or two. Remove and place in a plastic freezer bag. When you’re ready to use the gnocchi, just drop frozen gnocchi into boiling water. Easy peasy!

Ricotta Gnocchi

Recipe by Josie SmithCourse: EntreeCuisine: ItalianDifficulty: Medium

Servings

4

servings

Prep time

10

minutes

Ingredients

• 1 cup whole milk ricotta, drained

• 1 large egg, room temp

• 1 cup all purpose flour

• 3/4 tsp salt

• 1/4 tsp fresh ground pepper

• a generous grating of fresh nutmeg (optional)

Directions

• Drain ricotta, if desired. Put in a bowl and mix in the egg. Add the flour, salt and pepper and nutmeg. Stir until the dough comes together. If it’s too sticky, add more flour.
• Form dough into a ball and put on a lightly floured surface. Cut into 8 pie-shaped wedges.
• With a floured rolling pin (or your hands) roll each ball into a 3/4 ” snake-like shaped.
• With a butter knife, cut into bite-sized pieces. Gnocchi will expand as it cooks. If you desire, roll a fork over the top to make ridges (all the better to trap the sauce!). Coat the gnocchi in flour.
• Bring a large pot of salted water to a boil on medium-high heat. Drop gnocchi into water. When they float, remove with a slotted spoon and serve immediately with your favorite sauce and a grating of Parmesan cheese.

Recipe Video

Notes

• If you want to freeze gnocchi, coat in flour, put on a cookie sheet and freeze 1-2 hours. Remove from cookie sheet and put in a storage container. When ready to use, simply drop frozen gnocchi into boiling water.

With this easy recipe for gnocchi, you can have homemade pasta on the table in less than 15 minutes!

Up Next: Monday Morning Quarterback

Tik Tok Feta Tomato Pasta Recipe

• 2 baskets cherry tomatoes, sliced in half
• 1 block of Feta Cheese (the kind that comes in water)
• Extra Virgin Olive Oil (about 1/4 cup)
• 3 cloves garlic, chopped
• 1/4 cup fresh basil, chopped
• Red pepper flakes, 1 teaspoon (optional)
• Pasta, 1/2 pound

These ingredients are tailored to a two-person dish, so I used a 9 x 9 inch pan, as opposed to the 9 x 13 inch called for. Also, I love the Heavenly Villagio Marzano tomatoes; although they’re a little pricey, they are worth it.

Directions:

Preheat oven to 400 degrees.

Generously oil the pan. You don’t want to skimp on the olive oil, thoroughly coat the bottom of the pan, so the tomatoes don’t stick. Slice cherry tomatoes in half and place, cut side down, into the oiled pan. Place a block of feta cheese in the middle (I used half) and sprinkle on seasonings, if desired. I sprinkled mine with some red pepper flakes.

Place in oven, uncovered, and bake for about 30 minutes, or until feta is creamy.

In the meantime, boil your pasta water. Also chop your basil and garlic.

*A note here about the garlic, I guess you were supposed to bake the garlic with the tomatoes, but I liked the raw garlic tossed with the pasta, for a fresh taste and the pasta kind of cooked the garlic, so it wasn’t too strong.

The pasta type to use for this sauce is one with room in the middle (like penne or rigatoni) for the yummy sauce to fill, but honestly, any pasta would do.

Follow directions for boiling pasta and IMPORTANT! save some pasta water from the pot (after pasta is boiled), about 1 cup. Drain. Do not rinse the pasta.

Remove the pan from the oven, scrape up the tomatoes from the bottom and blend with the feta. Add the garlic and basil and stir. Then add the pasta water, to form a creamy sauce.

Add drained pasta to the pan with tomatoes and feta and enjoy.

This dish is easy enough to cook on a busy weeknight and luckily, the ingredients are probably ones you already have at home. I like Trader Joe’s feta cheese for this one.

Up Next: Easy Sauce for Smoked Pulled Pork.