Ricotta gnocchi

So, the other day, I made a batch of ricotta. I use a gallon of whole milk and a quart of buttermilk. There are lots of recipes, and I may switch next time, but for now, that is the one I make.

After I drained out the ricotta, I measured out 1 1/2 lbs of ricotta, which is half of what Chiarello calls for in his ricotta gnocchi, and left that to drain overnight. I had also made a batch of his nonna's tomato sauce which really is one of the divine creations. I have to say that it's even better than that bolognese that takes about three times the effort and time.

Anyway. On to the gnocchi. I took my time getting to the gnocchi so I put it into a container and left it in the fridge. When it was time to make the recipe, which calls for pushing the ricotta through a fine-mesh sieve, it wouldn't go, so I just skipped that step. That made me nervous, since I always try to really follow a recipe the first time.

Anyway, I mixed in the egg yolks (with strict commentary to Josh to make some drinks with the remaining egg whites) with whatever else went in there. Then it rested in the fridge.

When that was done, I unceremoniously rolled it into logs. Then I floured my dough blade and chop chop chop chop chop, just like on tv!

I'm using my plastic board -- yes, the one that I usually scale and clean fish on -- because the recipe says that you want a really cold board, preferably marble, which I don't have, so I put some ice packs on this board. I figured it wouldn't make much of a difference on the wooden board.

I rolled out all the dough, floured the trays, and then laid out all the gnocchi. Overall, I had two trays -- 43 pieces -- which I put into the freezer to freeze for at least 24 hours (and up a month, he said).

So. 24 hours later, my frozen gnocchi looked like this. Not very exciting. I did not have high hopes.

So I put on a pot of water and brought it to a boil. Did you know that you can cook dried pasta in a less-than-called-for amount of water but fresh pasta needs more? Anyway, I did a whole pot of it. Then I added a ton of salt, and gently dropped the gnocchi in. They should have started floating earlier, but the good thing is that they floated at all.

While they defied me, I heated up nonna's sauce.

When you pull out the gnocchi, they look much like this, except in focus. I don't know why I am having so much trouble with focus these days.

I topped them with a generous amount of nonna's sauce and some grated pecorino romano. Serve.

Even though I had low expectations, i have to admit that this is one of the best things I have put into my mouth in my own home. The first bite of gnocchi was melty inside in the way the others weren't. They were all relatively soft and pillowly, almost like we had in the restaurant.

The gnocchi are rather large. I admit that I cut them in half with my spoon before eating. I even heated up more nonna's sauce.

We have 21 more gnocchi in the fridge to enjoy soon. This is definitely a keeper. Josh said it needs to go into the regular rotation. He is forever spoiled.