What to do with the Ricotta?

Make Gnocchi !

Ingredients are assembled: 1 cup ricotta, 1 egg lightly beaten, 1/2 TBS melted butter (unsalted), 1/8 cup grated Parmesan cheese, generous pinch of salt.

Altho the ricotta I made was very creamy and fine grained, I pressed it thru a sieve "just to make sure" all lumps were broken. I used a spatter screen placed over my mixing bowl and mashed the ricotta with the back of a spoon.


The remianing ingredients were dumped into the bowl then mixed into a "dough". No flour or potatoes in this mixture. Mix and mix and beat until the dough is thoroughly blended ... no steaks or variations of color




Using a teaspoon, scoop up about 2 tsp of dough then, with your finger, push the dough off the side of the spoon into a pan of flour.
Pushing off the side of the spoon lets the dough form into oval shapes. Gently roll the the ovals in flour, which will keep them from sticking together or to the pan.

Take an oval into you hand and rock and roll it back and forth to further shape them. I would give them a little flip with my fingers in the process. The shapes will not be perfect ... all those little wrinkles, nooks and crannies will help hold the sauce to the gnocchi dumpling. Also, the rocking, rolling and flipping help knock off excess flour.

So that I would have even more creases I pressed fork tines across each dumpling

The gnocchi dumplings were dropped into salted boiling water. I let them continue cooking another minute or so after they rose to the surface being careful not to over cook them. Overcooked gnocchi can get mushy ... and I freely admit, some of mine DID! But they tasted fine, all the same.


I sauced the gnocchi with olive oil & browned butter, fresh basil and nutmeg. They accompanied roated chicken and sauted summer squash.

These gnocchi are delicate, airy pillows ... perfect for summer!