Ricotta and Spinach Gnocchi with a Fig chaser

Alright, so the question above is not that difficult, considering the answer is in the title of this post.

But I thought that the gnocchi and the reconstituted dried fig looked a bit unusual. I will start at the beginning...

The recipe for the Ricotta and Spinach Gnocchi was in the Food section of Sunday Life magazine recently (by Karen Martini), and it spoke volumes to me with its ingredients of ricotta, parmesan and spinach, drifting in a dressing of burnt butter, sage and walnuts. The ricotta does need to be drained first, to remove as much water as possible, so you’ll need to do this the day before, by leaving the ricotta overnight, draining in a paper towel-lined sieve.

And I’ll tell you honestly (am I ever anything else?) – these are the best gnocchi I’ve ever had!

Here is the recipe (which I’ve changed slightly from the original):

Ricotta and Spinach Gnocchi with burnt butter, walnuts and sage
serves 4

Ingredients

350g fresh ricotta (I used low fat ricotta), drained overnight
120g spinach, blanched and chopped
1 cup parmesan cheese, finely grated
1 egg, lightly beaten
Salt and pepper
½ cup plain flour
60g unsalted butter
Large handful of walnuts, roughly chopped
15 sage leaves
½ lemon, juiced

Method

1. Drain ricotta in a sieve over a bowl. Cover and chill overnight.

2. Squeeze liquid from spinach and mix with ricotta, parmesan and egg in a bowl. Season with salt and pepper then stir in flour until mixture comes together to form a soft, sticky dough.

3. Divide dough in half and, on a lightly floured surface, roll halves into a log shape about 40cm long. Cut logs into 2cm pieces. With lightly floured hands, roll pieces into oval shapes. Place on a paper-lined tray.

4. Carefully drop the gnocchi, one by one, into a large pot of salted boiling water. When they rise to the surface, cook for another minute. Use a slotted spoon to remove gnocchi and transfer to a warmed plate with 2 tablespoons of melted butter to stop them sticking. Keep warm.

5. Melt remaining butter in a frying pan over medium-high heat. Add walnuts and cook until the butter turns a nut-brown colour.

6. Add sage leaves. Add lemon juice (it’s gonna spit a bit!) and stir.

7. To serve, pour the butter sauce over the gnocchi.

Recipe adapted from Sunday Life magazine (5 July 2009)

Ingredients

Mix the ricotta, parmesan, egg and spinach, then add flour to form a dough


Roll dough into logs, cut and roll into oval gnocchi shapes

Cook gnocchi in boiling water; melt butter and walnuts to 'nut-brown' colour

This is an absolutely delicious, rich and wonderful gnocchi!

And where does the fig come in? Well, it was in a sweet soup made by my mother. The soup included slices of pawpaw, white cloud fungus and little dried figs. It smelt rather offensive and I had to add several spoonfuls of Splenda sweetener and sugar to make it palatable. It looks interesting, though...

Weird 'mum' soup