# gnocchi witn ricotta



## lisam (Feb 17, 2011)

I see many recipes with ricotta. got it.

Most call for a cup of all purpose flour. I think a mix might be more divine.

3/4 all purposr flour, maybe the rest corn starch, rice flour or potato starch.

touch self rising flour

What do you think.. I live and dream food.


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## chefedb (Apr 3, 2010)

Why do you think better? If it aint broke dont fix it, but try it and let us all now.


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## chrisbelgium (Oct 2, 2010)

Most gnocchi are made with potato and around 20% of flour. Why use ricotta, it has almost no flavor compared to even a humble potato. Also, gnocchi are fun to make.

Simply ovencook potatoes in their skins in a hot oven for 1 hour. You could cook them in water, but you have to dry them on a small fire for some time. Peel while hot (use handgloves like "Marygolds"). Mash and always while hot, add 20 % volume of flour to the volume of potatoes. You don't need to weigh, just make an estimate.

Now, quickly kneed, as short a time as possible or they will turn rubbery! It has to remain a little sticky. Flatten, cut off stripes and roll very lighthandedly into sausages. Now cut into cushions. You can roll them over a fork to get the "stripes", I don't bother.

You have to boil them asap, even when you want to preserve them for later on. Simple get a few at a time in boiling water. The moment they come to the surface, they are done. In this stage you can preserve them and heat later on in a sauce or even fry them in a little butter.

I made these with a mixture of 80% potato and 20% Hokkaido pumpkin. Both ovencooked for an hour. Then added 20% of flour to the total potato/pumpkin mixture. Maybe you could use ricotta instead of the pumpkin, but I don't see why that would make better gnocchi.

These gnocchi were served with sagebutter as you can see.


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## ishbel (Jan 5, 2007)

That looks great, ChrisBelgium!


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## pcieluck (Dec 9, 2010)

I use ricotta when I simply dont feel like waiting for potato to cook. Ricotta gnocci also won't turn gummy when stored in the fridge, but the simple solution to that is to freeze them instead. I've made a mixture or two that i'm not sure would taste right with a potato. Porchini powder, for example.  agreed, it ain't broken.  People have been making gnocci the same for probably a century, but I'm interested in knowing your oppinion on the benefit of that mixture and if you've tried it.  My food does, too, tend to be kind of be...not complicated?... asside from special occasions. I probably would never load my pantry up with a variety of different flours. I have semolina, corn flower,  unbleached all purpose, and can feel like i'm overdoing it just because I have cake flour in there sometimes.

Now days I can't make gnocchi without thinking of the time I made chicken gnocchi soup as my version of chicken and dumplings, and had someone go "these dumplings are too big! why didn't you just use bisquick dumplings? FML

@Chris: MMMMM...SAGEBUTTER! *drooling*


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## siduri (Aug 13, 2006)

ChrisBelgium said:


> Most gnocchi are made with potato and around 20% of flour. Why use ricotta, it has almost no flavor compared to even a humble potato.


Gnocchi are made with everything - soft cheeses, squash, potatoes, ricotta and sometimes just plain flour! Pasta is just flour and water, and has its uses too. It doesn;t have to have a special flavor. Personally, i dislike potato gnocchi - don;t like the mushy texture. I make them usually with just squash. I've made them with ricotta. Have had them with just flour. They make them with semolina. Probably other things as well.

yours do look good Chris. But i wouldn;t put the potato, just the squash.


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## chefedb (Apr 3, 2010)

Chris'' I'll be over for lunch. Look great. Did you slightly saute in sage butter or just put on?


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## chrisbelgium (Oct 2, 2010)

chefedb said:


> Chris'' I'll be over for lunch. Look great. Did you slightly saute in sage butter or just put on?


Thanks chef, and indeed I did slightly saute them in the sage butter. These were light as a feather. Seems the trick is not to overwork the dough and keep the flourcontent somewhat low. I used plain flour or AP as you may call it. Don't know if it contributes a lot to the structure, but using a foodmill comes in very handy with processing hot potatoes and pumpkin.

@siduri; sorry, I like potatoes, I live in a potatocountry. Many of us Belgians eat spuds every day, very versatile yet humble ingredient.


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## pcieluck (Dec 9, 2010)

Whenever i get into a gnocchi discussion, Roman gnocchi always seems left out.  It's very easy, but kind of time consuming.

1. Prepare a large portion of polenta or semolina.

2. Spread into a sheet and cool until completely set.

3. cut into shapes, and arrange in a cassarole dish

4. cover with cheese and or herbs

5. Broil and serve. Sauce optional

We could get into the more scandinavian variations too, which tend to be made from bread.  Point is, if it's a dumpling of some kind, go ahead and call it ghocchi if you like.  I just think you'd have a much more rewarding experience experimenting with a variety of main ingredients in your dumplings, rather than mixtures of flour.


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## siduri (Aug 13, 2006)

ChrisBelgium said:


> Thanks chef, and indeed I did slightly saute them in the sage butter. These were light as a feather. Seems the trick is not to overwork the dough and keep the flourcontent somewhat low. I used plain flour or AP as you may call it. Don't know if it contributes a lot to the structure, but using a foodmill comes in very handy with processing hot potatoes and pumpkin.
> 
> @siduri; sorry, I like potatoes, I live in a potatocountry. Many of us Belgians eat spuds every day, very versatile yet humble ingredient.


I love potatoes too, Chris, and i eat plenty of them, especially roasted. But i don;t like them in gnocchi - i don't like the texture of potato gnocchi.

Pcieluck, ahem, i did mention semolina gnocchi, /img/vbsmilies/smilies/smile.gif just didn;t give a recipe


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## chefedb (Apr 3, 2010)

Here in the US The majority of people only know Potato Gnocchi. They come already made by a number of manufacturers. A lot of people simply do not make them from scratch. Although delicious and not hard I believe the majority of people here buy already made pastas of all kinds .Making ones own does not seem to score high on a chart of things people love to do.


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## pcieluck (Dec 9, 2010)

my favorite thing some less experienced cooks say is that store-bought pasta is faster than fresh pasta! HA! I can have pasta kneeded, rolled, and cut to my desire before a pot of water comes to a boil. After that, there's no question how much faster fresh pasta is than dehydrated.


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## chrisbelgium (Oct 2, 2010)

pcieluck said:


> Whenever i get into a gnocchi discussion, Roman gnocchi always seems left out. It's very easy, but kind of time consuming.
> 
> 1. Prepare a large portion of polenta or semolina.
> 
> ...


I have to try the gnocchi made with polenta. I like polenta a lot, no precooked junk, the real thing, cooking and above all, stirring it for 45-60 minutes and watch out for the Vesuvius-style boiling and trying not to get burned...

Mostly I put some butter in it and parmezan when done, cool it and fry slices of polenta in a grillpan. Love that with osso buco, makes me feel less guilty than serving risotto with osso buco...

Now I'm very intrigues about the scandinavian variations too, pcieluck!


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## chefedb (Apr 3, 2010)

I make all different flavors of polenta  Wrap in plastic then freeze  Cut off what I need in slices and slightly saute.


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## siduri (Aug 13, 2006)

Home made pasta?  I'm not crazy about it.  I prefer a good dish of spaghetti or penne or rigatoni to fettuccine, it's got a different bite.  They're really two different things.  One can't replace the other. 

No accounting for taste, right?


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## chefedb (Apr 3, 2010)

Today I stayed home watched Hockey  and made 200 Won tons and froze them. I used a mix of ground pork and ground turkey. I I Q F freeze them uncooked then when thry are solid pack them in plastic zip bags trying to take all air out  (took me about  1 hour 10 minutes not counting freeze and packaging)

 Also made some cream cheese  and garlic=chive triangles  out of extra won ton skins.


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## chrisbelgium (Oct 2, 2010)

siduri said:


> Home made pasta? I'm not crazy about it. I prefer a good dish of spaghetti or penne or rigatoni to fettuccine, it's got a different bite. They're really two different things. One can't replace the other.
> 
> No accounting for taste, right?


I like to make ravioli, obviously from handmade pasta. Including pappardelle it's about the only handmade pasta I make. I also prefer dry pasta for most other pasta dishes.

One of my favorite pasta is De Cecco n° 12. In fact, when I can find De Cecco, I will take that brand.

@ chefedB; I have made a few batches of ravioli using wontons, in both cases I used a crab filling. I don't think it's possible to roll home made pasta that thin. It looks fabulous because after cooking you can see a lot of ingredients through the wonton ravioli. People who don't want to put a lot of work into making ravioli should indeed try wonton leaves available in most Asian foodstores.

I have no experience in freezing prepared pasta, but I can say that it's a good idea to boil the finished ravioli asap when you have to wait more than 20-30 minutes before serving. They are very delicat.

Ed, another thing you can do with wontons is deepfry them. I use 100x100mm wontons, cut them diagonally and deepfry around 5 seconds. Get them out and sprinkle a little salt over them. Served it with a thin slice of barely fried tuna on top and a lick of ponzu. An "amuse-gueule" as we say. Instant success!


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