Ingredients
- 2 cups ricotta
- 3/4 cup grated parmesan
- 2 eggs
- 1 cup boiled and chopped nettles (or spinach or chard stripped off the stalk)
- 1/2 cup flour, plus more for rolling
- 1/8 tsp nutmeg
- salt and pepper
- olive oil
- butter
- fresh sage, chopped
Method
1. Blanche stinging nettles in boiling water for a minute. Drain, shock with cold water, and squeeze out as much excess water as possible. Chop finely to fill a loose cup.
2. Drain ricotta and stir into large bowl with parmesan, eggs, chopped nettles, a dash of nutmeg, and seasoning. Slowly add flour. Mixture should be damp and tacky without sticking to hands. If a half cup of flour doesn’t do the trick, keep adding a little more at a time until you can form a wet ball in your hand without it adhering.
3. Sprinkle work surface generously with flour. Take a snowball-sized handful of cheese mixture and roll in flour until thoroughly coated. Roll out into a snake with a half-inch to inch diameter depending on preference. Cut into pillows. Dredge the cut ends in flour and shape each pillow as desired. Set aside on floured plate.
4. Boil gnudi in batches in salted water. They’re done when they float to the surface. Use a slotted spoon to remove from boiling water to a clean plate. Place cooked gnudi on greaseproof paper. I like to boil a batch after each snowball’s worth of filling is shaped. While that batch is boiling (it only takes a couple minutes), I move the previous boiled batch from plate to wax paper. Then I continue with another handful.
5. Pan fry gnudi in olive oil and butter with chopped sage leaves until nicely browned. Leftover boiled gnudi can be refrigerated.
