Last weekend, we had some friends over for Pizza Night. We were training them for our annual beach trip’s pizza night where we serve about 35 pizzas to our 60ish starving friends. Plus it was an excuse to have some beer, pizza, and play some epically awesome Rockband.

Don’t judge.

Anyway, we had some ricotta for that night to make a white pizza, since white pizza is delicious. But then we had a huge thing of leftover ricotta I had to use up. Open ricotta lasts a little over a week, so I had some time to come up with ideas. First, we did white pizzas again later that week. I wish I’d taken a picture to blog them, they turned out fantastically.

Then I still had ricotta. I swear this stuff multiplies. I had seen a few recipes for Ricotta Gnocchi online and I decided to give it a shot. I once made potato gnocchi, and it turned out really gross. I’m not sure what I did, I’m blaming my potato choice that day… but I’ve been scared to try it ever since.

I am delighted to announce that these came out perfectly, were very easy, and done in about 30 minutes. Win win!

I hope you like them as much as we did. As for sauce, you could really go with anything here. I’d recommend something a little on the sweet side rather than super acidic. I apologize for the lack of in-process pictures, I didn’t have easy access to my camera until the end. I should plan ahead better.

Enjoy!

Ricotta Gnocchi

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Ingredients:
8 oz ricotta cheese
1/2 cup Parmesan cheese, grated, fresh if possible
2 eggs
1 cup flour, plus extra
Salt, pepper, garlic to taste

Directions:

In a bowl, mix the ricotta, eggs, Parmesan cheese, salt, and pepper together. Slowly add the flour to make a soft dough.

On a floured surface, take a bit of the dough (about 1/5 at a time) and roll it out into a rope about 1/2″ thick. Using the side of a fork, cut 1″ pieces from the rope, then gently press down on the side of each piece with the fork to create indents. Place the gnocchi in the fridge for a few minutes.

Boil some water in a pot with a bit of salt in it. Once boiling, add a few gnocchi at a time. Remove the gnocchi after they start to float about 1-2 minutes.

Serve warm with a sauce.