Hey
Ever had gnocchi, Italy's number 1 dumping? Soft, sauce-absorbing bites of fluffy, moist, mass that go great with thicker and hearty sauces. Would you know they are often easy to make (especially these ones) and come in a wide range of ingredient bases in addition to the number 1 potato style gnocchi.
This dish is perfect after a long chilly day of which you were either working hard or not eating much. Its very rich and pleasing and fattening in a good way.
These ricotta gnocchi are just a mixture of ricotta, plain flour, breadcrumbs, some nutmeg and salt and pepper. Antonio Carluccio (yes he gave me the basic recipe which I basically modified in a base way) says to use sheeps milk ricotta but good luck finding it and if you do use it by all means, it will certainly up the authenticity level.
The sauce is a combination of soaked, dried porcinis, the resulting liquid, some white whine, fresh mushrooms (if you can porcinis but fresh porcinis are hard to find outside of Italy so I use oysters), garlic, Parmesan, and a good chunk of butter. See:
serves 4 (i think)
GNOCCHI DI RICOTTA:
400 g / 12 oz fresh Ricotta
180 g / 6 oz plain flour
5 tbsp breadcrumbs
salt and pepper to taste
good pinch fresh grated nutmeg
To make ricotta gnocchi, mix all above ingredients in mixing bowl and incorporate thoroughly. Make sure mixture is sticking together right (it should be fairly consistent and clumping together in large clumps) by putting a small ball of mixture into boiling water and if it holds shape after a minute your in bidness.
Next, take handfuls of the mixture and roll out into sausages (as Carluccio calls them) about 3/4inch thick. Then cut the roll into inch-or-so long segments and roll each segment with the back of a fork to give the gnocchi a nice bit of texture. Set all the little gnocchi under a towel until your ready to boil them.
SUGO DI PORCINI
20 g / just under an ounce of Dried Porcini
60 g / 2 oz or 1/3 cup Butter
1 garlic clove crushed
250 g / 8 oz fresh oyster or other really good mushrooms (no portabellos or buttons please)
finely sliced
1 tbsp chopped or torn flat leaf parsley
2 tbsp dry white wine
50 g / 1/2 cup parmesan, freshly grated
Soak the dried porcini in hot water (about 2 cups) for 20 minutes or so. Drain and chop, RESERVE LIQUID! Put a pan over medium heat and melt butter. Add garlic and fry about 3 minutes just until garlic softens, do not allow garlic to color. Add fresh and soaked mushrooms and saute until fresh mushrooms appear silken, about 5 or 7 minutes. Season with salt and pepper to taste then add parsley, wine, and porcini liquid (dont add any dust or sediment from liquid). Bring to a boil, turn heat to low-medium (simmer folks) and reduce for about 20 minutes. Once sauce is at a suitable thickness add parmesan, stir and keep warm and covered until gnocchi is ready.
While the sauce reduces and thickens you should have put a large pot of salted water on to boil. If you haven't then do so. When water is up to rollin' boil drop in gnocchi (maybe not all at once?) and cook. They are done when they float to the top. Scoop them out as they do so and drain.
Now all you have to do is combine the gnocchi with the sauce and eat it up eat it up. I suggest going all out and serving it with some nice Beer (think czech pilsner) and a salad with some tangy dressing to cut it all up nice.
See if that works. If it doesn't you'll have to call me.
Source: Antonio Carluccio's Italy and memories of dishes I had on my one trip to Italy a while back.
ENJOY
Luv === CP
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