Egg-free ricotta gnocchi are super easy and quick to make. They are light, tasty, and pair perfectly with meat, fish, and vegetable-based sauces; moreover, they are ideal for an important or chic lunch. The basic recipe can be personalized with other ingredients, such as cheese, pepper, saffron, turmeric, etc… to make them even tastier. To prepare our delicious gnocchi, we can use cow’s milk ricotta, as in this case, which has a very delicate flavor, or sheep or buffalo ricotta if we want to give it a stronger taste. This is my base version.
- Difficulty: Very easy
- Cost: Economical
- Preparation time: 40 Minutes
- Portions: 3/4 servings
- Cooking methods: Stove
- Cuisine: Italian
Ingredients
- 7 oz Ricotta
- 3/4 cup Semolina flour
- 1 pinch Fine salt
Preparation
1) In a bowl, mash the ricotta with a fork, gradually add the semolina and the salt. Work the ingredients with your hands until you get a soft yet firm dough. Form a ball, cover it with plastic wrap, and let it rest for about half an hour. If the dough is still a bit sticky, use the semolina to handle it.
2) After the resting time, take small pieces, stretch them with your hands until you get sticks about 1/8 inch in diameter. With a sharp knife, cut our small gnocchi, pass them on a gnocchi board or with the tines of a fork (this way they will hold the sauces better) and arrange them on a tray, sprinkling them with a little more semolina. At this point, we can: cook them immediately, or we can cover them and leave them at room temperature – if it’s not too hot – or, still, store them in the fridge well-covered (in the least cold part) until it’s time to cook them.
3) Bring plenty of water to a boil and, when it boils, salt it, add the gnocchi, stir, and cover. When the water returns to a boil, the gnocchi will have risen to the surface; count about two to three minutes and then drain them immediately before tossing them in the sauce prepared previously. The rule of tasting applies to establish the most suitable consistency for your taste. Do not prolong cooking too much, otherwise, they will become hard.
Salting the cooking water or not depends on the type of sauce chosen to accompany the gnocchi; we will decide, therefore, based on our tastes and needs.
Notes
Additional Idea. These delicious gnocchi can be flavored as we like. The ricotta gnocchi in the photo were colored with a quarter teaspoon of turmeric added directly to the semolina, which, in addition to color, also gave them an extra touch of flavor. If you don’t like turmeric, we can use a packet of saffron; or we can mix fresh chopped basil, rosemary, tomato paste, and so on; it will always be a success.
