making pasta II

the january issue of bon appetit had a feature on the "top trends of 2006." they named gnudi as the “dish of the year”. gnudi, meaning nude, is most often described as a "naked ravioli." consisting of ricotta and flour held together by egg, it's as fluffy and cheesy as gnocchi could ever dream to be.

bon appetit's gnudi recipe was delightfully easy, but required a lot of wait time (maximize your time: prepare this while you’re busy with something else. i made it while baking an pan):

1) drain 1 cup fresh ricotta over paper towels for half an hour
2) beat 1 egg and mix with 1/3 cup pecorino romano, 1/2 tsp salt, and a bit of white pepper as you see fit (i used black)
3) mix in ricotta
4) sprinkle 3/4 cup flour and gently combine
5) cover & chill for 1 hour
6) roll 1 tsp of gnudi dough into a ball, toss with flour to coat and shape (i made mine to look like deceptively like gnocchi)
7) cover with plastic wrap until ready to cook



to cook, simply throw the gnudi in lots of boiling water seasoned with salt. the recipe said to boil it about 8 minutes, but i found that to be too long. pasta's ready once it floats. i think just 4 minutes does the trick. it's fully cooked through by then.

gnudi is pretty flavorful just on its own, so you don't need heavy sauces. still, it pairs just fine with a little canned marinara:



three days later (today), i cooked up the last bit of gnudi. having not gone grocery shopping for some time, i was at a loss for how to serve it. i wanted some protein, so i started frying some crumbled veggie burger. in another pan, i attempted to make a brown butter sauce. i melted a big pat of butter, waiting for it to stop bubbling and caramelize. unfortunately, i was hungry and didn't have the patience to let it brown properly. for flavoring, i added minced garlic, then some lemon juice to slow the cooking, and stirred in chopped parsley and basil to finish. finally, i tossed the gnudi and veggie burger in the butter to coat. it was very tasty and not at all greasy.