Gnocchi Gnudi from Tuscany, recipe and cooking class

Gnocchi Gnudi from Tuscany: they are easy but delicious and therefore the perfect dish to prepare when you have little time but you want to enjoy it!

Today I do have not much time to cook because I have: to print new menus for CuocheinVacanza Private Dinners, to answer a lot of emails from travelers who will be in Tuscany in Summer, and ask me for information on Cooking Classes in Tuscany, to make a dozen phone calls … furthermore it’s finally done the gate at my Brick’n mortar place, the cooking school near Lucca: Dolce Vita Cooking School and B&B.

Simple, Fast, and delicious

I am preparing the menu for an exam about the chef world, ideas, ideas, and even a little ‘fear. The days go by fast and the tests and experiments on what to bring on that fateful table … well, just do not seem to end.
Anyway, I’m not sure I get anxious, cooking is my passion, it’s what makes me feel good, and I keep this in mind, from when I wake up in the morning when I close my eyes and fantasize about what to prepare the next day.

Well, today I’m going to prepare a dish belonging to cucina povera Toscana: a simple one, and maybe not just so beautiful to look at, but for flavor and aroma, it has nothing to envy a first-course gourmet.

Cucina Povera meaning

It happened to me a few days ago, having lunch with a friend at a famous restaurant in Pisa; I tasted the dumplings, certainly very good, but when I saw the price… €24 the portion… I immediately thought about “gnudi”, this “Cucina Povera” dish. Poor cuisine yes, but just in cost, because the flavor and ingredients that come straight from nature, are what most rich in flavor exist in the world.

Cucina Povera (Poor Cuisine) is the richest thing for health that can exist. All fresh, seasonal, directly from the farmer. These “Gnocchi”, mentioned already by Artusi in his famous book (Recipe No. 97 Ravioli), were made a long time ago with chard but then tastes change and times the same and therefore now they are made more with spinach. They are called “Gnudi“ because they do not have the coating of pasta such as classic ravioli and here in Tuscany the word “Gnudi” just means naked, without clothes.
So guys let’s enjoy this easy cooking dish, fast, tasty and delicate at the same time. Let’s enjoy this dish that requires a very limited budget, but that fills your mouth with the sweetness of the ricotta and melts slow and soft with the taste of the parmesan cheese and the smell of sage.
It’s prepared in record time… the same as it takes to “clean up” the pot.

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Gnocchi Gnudi from Tuscany

Recipe by Erika Elia

Prep time: 30 minutes
Cook time: 3 minutes
Total time: 33 minutes

Ingredients

300 gr (10 oz; 1 1/4 US cup) spinach
210 gr (1 US cup) fresh ricotta cheese
60 gr (3 tbsp all-purpose flour + 2 tbsp to sprinkle over the “gnudi”)
1 egg
60g (3 tbsp) parmigiano reggiano cheese grated
60 gr (2,12 oz) melted butter
1 pinch nutmeg
8 leaves sage
1 pinch salt
1 pinch pepper

Cooking Directions

Put the ricotta in a colander to drain for a few hours (or overnight) in the refrigerator.
Boil the spinach in salted water. Drain, squeeze and chop them. Instead of boiling, you can cook them directly in a pan, to avoid the water excess.
Let them cool.
Mix the ricotta cheese with flour, parmesan cheese, and nutmeg.
Pour in the egg and mix well
Add the spinach and mix together. Add salt and taste.
Boil salted water in a pot.
Form with your hands some small balls or some quenelles using 2 tablespoons. These ones are the most difficult.
Melt the butter in a pan with the sage leaves.
Put some parchment paper over a tray and sprinkle some flour over the paper.
Gently set the Gnocchi Gnudi over the paper and sprinkle again with some flour.
Boil the Gnocchi Gnudi in boiling water for about 2 minutes. Just come to the surface they are ready.
Drizzle with melted butter and sage and sprinkle generously with Parmesan cheese.