I’ve been making this gnocchi since I came across the recipe when I was content writing for a company a few years ago. I joke not when I say it is so quick to make, and only has about 5 ingredients – plus the kids love getting involved too!

What you’ll need: (I double this entire recipe for our family)

250 g Ricotta

1 egg yolk (M-L)

1/4-1/2 tsp fine sea salt

30 g Parmigiano (or Pecorino), freshly grated

50-75 g all-purpose flour, extra for dusting the dough/board

 

What you need to do:

Discard any excess liquid that the Ricotta’s packaging may contain, then add Ricotta cheese, egg yolk, salt and freshly grated Parmigiano into a large bowl. Mix well with a wooden or regular spoon.

Now add the flour and stir in briefly, just until combined – the dough will still be quite sticky. (Of course you can add more flour at this point, but keep in mind, that the more flour you use, the denser the gnocchi become in the end. And you want them to be as light & fluffy as possible, with a velvet-like texture.)

Forming these gnocchi is the slightly tricky step, this is the technique that works best for me: Generously flour a board, take a big tablespoon of the dough and scoop it onto the board. It gets dusted with flour (dust your hands generously, too!), before rolling it into a finger-thick roll. Cut it into little pillows (stick the knife’s blade into the flour to prevent it from sticking to the dough). Then place each gnoccho on a floured board or parchment paper lined baking tray.

Meanwhile bring a large pot of water to a boil, add a generous pinch of salt and reduce heat until the water bubbles lightly. Add the gnocchi and stir once, so they don’t stick to the bottom – then let cook until they start floating on top. Depending on their size this may take 2 to 4 minutes. Take out with a skimmer and serve immediately.

You can obviously choose your own ‘sauce’ but I like to serve mine with just a simple melted butter and herbs combo. I melt a big lob of butter and add pepper, salt, sage and basil (I must try roasted pine nuts too!), and low heat it, before adding the gnocchi straight out of the water into it. Then serve! Voila.