Tag: traditional

Ri­cotta Gnocchi

Ri­cotta gnocchi is not a recipe spe­cial to my family. Alt­hough the dish is eaten in almost all parts of Italy, it is fre­quently unknown to some people. To me, it re­calls sweet me­mo­ries of my child­hood. It takes me back to my summer ho­li­days at my grand­par­ents’ in the moun­tains of Tren­tino, a place where I was simply just happy. A bit like Marcel Proust and his bel­oved Made­leine. These ri­cotta gnocchi awaken my mé­moire in­vo­lon­taire.

Unlike the big city where I was raised, in Tren­tino they still always use fresh pro­ducts sourced from local suppliers.

As a child, I loved going shop­ping with my nonna to buy fresh ri­cotta in the dairy shop. And then I’d often eat it straight away for break­fast. I’d spread it on bread with a bit of sugar – a great way to start the day.

I rang my nonna a few days ago to ask for her ri­cotta gnocchi recipe.

A very simple, yet tasty dish. Here’s the in­gre­di­ents you’ll need, and how to prepare it…

For 2-3 persons:

  • 250 g firm ri­cotta (al­ter­na­tively you can use ri­cotta bought from a su­per­market, even if the qua­lity is not quite the same)
  • 100 g wheat flour, type 00 (the kind you use to make pizza). You might have to add a little more flour to pro­duce a dough that is firm, but still elastic
  • 2 tbsp. grana padano cheese
  • 1 egg
  • A pinch of salt
  • Butter
  • Sage
  • Op­tional: grated truffle

Bring some water to the boil (salted to taste).

While the water heats, put the ri­cotta, egg, some of the flour, salt and grana padano into a bowl. Knead ever­y­thing tog­e­ther with your hands to make a dough. If it’s not firm enough, add some more flour.

Once the dough is ready, put it out on a work sur­face dusted with flour, and roll into medium-sized balls (or any other pre­ferred shape).

Sprinkle some flour on the shaped gnocchi, and im­merse them in the water.

Add the butter and sage to a frying pan, and heat until the butter turns brown.

As soon as the gnocchi have risen to the sur­face of the water, remove them from the water using a skimmer spoon, add to the pan and fry in the sage butter.

Sprinkle with grated truffle or grana padano ac­cor­ding to preference.

Buon ap­pe­tito!

Aus­trian-style Apricot Dumplings

Our recipe for this Week comes from Aus­tria, and it’s in­tro­duced to us here by Jes­sica May.

I can still cle­arly re­member how my grandma often made apricot dum­plings during the ho­li­days. I always found this quite spe­cial, and it seemed like grandma’s very own in­dul­gence routine.

No­wa­days, apricot dum­plings are usually eaten as a des­sert. They used to be thought of as a main course, as indeed were the ma­jo­rity of Austria’s other pastry dishes.

Did you know that this one-time luxury dish, which then became part of the menu of or­di­nary house­holds ever­y­where, is now pro­tected as part of the nation’s cu­linary he­ri­tage? Un­be­lie­vable, but true!

It is one of the tra­di­tional dishes to have its recipe kept in a safe in the Aus­trian Na­tional Li­brary in Vienna, so as to pre­serve it for posterity.

So, here is grandma’s very own in­dul­gence routine:

  • Pre­pa­ra­tion time: approx. 30 minutes
  • Res­ting time: approx. 1 hour
  • Cooking/baking time: approx. 30 minutes
  • Total time: approx. 2 hours
In­gre­di­ents for making 5 portions:
  • 500g quark (curds)
  • 100 g butter
  • 2 eggs
  • 250 g flour
  • 1 pinch of salt
  • some wheat se­mo­lina, to bind the dough
  • 10 apri­cots
  • bread crumbs
  • sugar
  • butter
  • op­tional: cinnamon

This is enough dough to make 10 dumplings.

Knead the curd, eggs, butter and salt into a smooth dough, add ap­pro­xi­m­ately 1 – 2 tbsp. se­mo­lina, and knead again tho­roughly. Chill for about 1 hour to allow the se­mo­lina to swell.

Pit the apri­cots You could use plums in­s­tead of apri­cots, if you prefer.

Shape the dough into a roll, and divide it into 10 equally-sized pieces. The dough can be a little sticky, so always dust your hands with some flour when en­ca­sing the fruit in the dough. The dough casing should be about 1 – 2 cm thick de­pen­ding on the size of the fruit

Steep in slightly salted, gently sim­me­ring water for about 20 – 30 mi­nutes (de­pen­ding on whe­ther you are using fresh or frozen fruit). The dough should rise nicely, and the fruit be soft on the inside.

At the same time, melt some butter in a pan, add the bread crumbs and sugar, and brown slowly over a gentle heat. You can decide how much butter, bread crumbs and sugar to add. It’s all down to your in­di­vi­dual taste.
Once cooked, drain the dum­plings, add to the browned bread crumbs in the pan, coat all over and serve hot.
If you like, you can sprinkle them with some icing sugar and cinnamon.

Enjoy!