Gnudi

After seeing this recipe on Enza's blog, da grande, I had to give it a try. If you want to try authentic Italian food, where better to go than an actual Italian kitchen, right? It is a regional dish of Tuscany, and might be classified in the same family as gnocchi.

This was also my first time making a pasta sort of dish from scratch, so that was exciting. Also, good news: I finally got a camera. Bad news: I bought the wrong sort of memory card for it. I'll need to go beg Costco to take it back...how was I supposed to know it only takes SD if they don't let me open the box first? Anyways, the camera only holds 11 pictures at a time (!!), so I'll probably get that taken care of tomorrow.

Recipe:
7 oz. ricotta
3 oz. parmigiano-reggiano, shredded
11 oz. chopped spinach, squeezed dry
1 egg
flour

Simply mix together all of the ingredients, and gradually add flour until a dough forms that is no longer sticky. I started this out by hand, but eventually my fingers got tired so I moved to the stand mixer and used a dough hook. Once the dough is at a good consistency, roll the dough into long strips (think play-doh snakes), approximately 1.5 cm thick, then cut into pieces.

After all the pieces are cut, throw them into some gently boiling water. As they reach completeness, they pop up to the top. It was pretty entertaining watching them launch up one at a time. Once all of them are floating, drain, and your gnudi is done.

Enza then served hers with fresh tomatoes warmed in a pan with olive oil, basil, and a garlic clove. I still had leftover onions from before, so I sliced up the garlic and onion and threw it on the stove over medium heat with some olive oil until nice and tender. Then I sliced up 5 medium sized tomatoes (dried via salad spinner), and heated those on top until everything was nicely warmed through. While I was picking up the ricotta cheese, I saw some turkey sausages with spinach and parmesan in them and knew I just had to add them. Hey, all the flavors already matched, how could I turn that down?

I spooned some of the gnudi onto a plate, spooned on some of the tomato mixture, added a little sausage on top, and served with sliced baguette pieces. Simple dinner, but oh so tasty. You could also throw on top some parmesan, but I didn't see much of a need for it.

Thank you, Enza, for the wonderful idea for a meal.