Just another day on my COVID-19 watch.

Gnocchi or gnudi, you pick! First of all, what is the difference? One thing for sure is that Gnudi is not related to the bad dream you have every once in a while about the after-effects from the first college frat party you went to as a Freshman. I am sure your dream has something to do with Tequila. They all do! So even though it is pronounced “Nude -e”, let’s not confuse one night on the town with a wonderful pasta dish! Gnudi refers to a plain dumpling; almost like a ravioli without any filling. The G on both gnudi and gnocchi is silent.

They are both little pillows of pasta. From what I can find out, gnudi is generally made from ricotta cheese and is very light on the flour. Gnocchi is made from potato and flour and therefore is a little heavier and has a much more chewy texture. Gnudi can be tricky, so I am combining a little extra flour to make my Ricotta Gnudi! Doing this gives us a better chance of making a successful dish!

I am using a red sauce in the recipe below. Check out the notes below if you’re interested in a Brown Butter Sage Sauce.

My Gnudi in a Brown Butter Sauce

Looking for some more great Italian Recipes? Check here for my 20 Layered Lasagna Recipe! Or check here for the best Meatball Recipe!

Please leave your comments below and as always, thanks for Spending Time in My Kitchen!

Ricotta Gnocchi with Pancetta Red Sauce and Calabrian Chile

0 from 0 votes

Recipe by David Frank – Spending Time In My Kitchen

Servings

servings

Prep time

hour

Cooking time

minutes

Ingredients

Ricotta Gnudi
16 oz 16 Ricotta
3 3 Egg yolks
1/2 cup 1/2 Parmesan cheese, grated
1 1/2 Tbl 1 1/2 Extra Virgin Olive Oil
1 cup 1 AP flour
Pancetta Sauce
1 1 Mild Italian sausage, crumbled
Pancetta / Bacon
1/2 1/2 Onion, diced
2 Tbl 2 Garlic
1 Tbl 1 Basil, preferably fresh, but dry will do fine
2 tsp 2 Oregano, dry
28 oz 28 Passata or San Marzano tomatoes
Salt and pepper to taste
1/2 Tbl 1/2 Calabrian chili

Directions

Sauce
Set your stovetop heat to medium and saute pancetta and Italian sausage.
Pull the meat from the pan and set aside in a separate bowl when the sausage just starts to brown.
Add onions and garlic to the same pan that you cooked the sausage and pancetta. There should be a bit of rendered fat in the pan to brown the onions.
When the onions have turned light golden, add the meat back into the pan; also add the passata and stir.
Add the remaining sauce ingredients. Turn heat to medium-low and cook for 15 minutes. I personally like a fresh-tomato-tasting sauce.
Keep sauce on low heat until ready to serve, or turn off until ready to serve, and then heat the sauce back up.
Ricotta Gnudi
Add water to your pasta pot and get the water boiling. Don’t forget to salt your water so that it “tastes like the ocean”.
Add ricotta, eggs, Parmesan cheese, and olive oil into a large bowl. Mix well.
Once mixed, add flour a little bit at a time. Before adding more, make sure the previous flour was well-mixed.
Once all the flour has been mixed well, the texture of the dough should be soft to the touch. Make sure you have a nice area to roll the dough and sprinkle some flour on the surface.
Take your dough scrapper and cut off one slice as if you were cutting a piece of bread from a loaf.
Take that slice and slowly roll it into a 6 to 8-inch-long cylinder.
Now here is where the fun begins! Again, take your scrapper and cut off 1-inch little pillows from the cylinder. Check out the video down below for further details.
If you have a gnocchi wood block roller, use that. If not, you have a couple of other options. One would be to use the back of a fork to make the indentations of a gnocchi. The other is to use the 1-inch little pillows you cut and just throw them into the water.
So dust up a small tray with flour and put your little gnocchi on the tray until you are ready to cook.
So now all your gnocchi are rolled. Add about 12 gnocchi one at a time to the boiling water. They will eventually pop to the top and that’s when you know they are about ready. Give them another 2 minutes as they float. Then use a small strainer to pull them out of the water.
Plate your gnudi; add some sauce. Top off with some parmesan and whichever herbs you might have in your household; basil, oregano, and Italian parsley!
Enjoy!

Recipe Video

Notes

I know we are all in a COVID-19 situation, so some of the ingredients you may not have. If no pancetta, use ham or bacon or just a plain red sauce with spices. If no red sauce, use a brown butter sauce. There are endless options for making this dish. Please send me your questions and be SAFE out there!!
Another great option is to cook your gnudi in sage and brown butter. It is very typical to serve gnudi this way. Place 4 to 5 Tbl of butter in a saute pan. Let it cook until the butter starts to brown. Take it off the heat at this point. Place the gnudi that has floated to the top and has finished cooking into the pan with the brown butter. Stir and place back on the pan. Add the sage to the pan. Stir and cook until the gnudi starts to brown. You can add some of the pasta water to thicken the butter sauce you have made. Add some grated nutmeg to enhance the sauce and you are done!