Gnudi is an Italian gnocchi like dumpling made with ricotta cheese instead of potato and of course I made a butternut squash version. Absolutely delicious and such a treat! Yes this would be considered a second course (like a pasta course) in Italian cooking. Gnudi is actually the Tuscan word for ‘naked’, essentially, these are naked ravioli (just the filling) that are held together with some semolina or all purpose flour. Be cautious while cooking because gnudi can fall apart if it is not left to dry for long enough. Check this recipe out!
Butternut Squash Gnudi
Ingredients
- 250 grams 1 cup of ricotta
- 180-190 grams pureed squash
- 65 grams 3/4 cups of grated parmesan, not packed
- 1 large egg
- 2 cups of semolina flour for coating
- 1/4 teaspoon of salt taste and adjust is needed
- 1/2 teaspoon of nutmeg
- 1/4 teaspoon of black pepper
Instructions
- In a pan, take your butternut squash puree and heat it up mixing continuously for about 10-15 minutes until some water evaporates and the puree thickens. Let cook and weight out 170 grams of cooked down, cooled squash puree. Set aside.
- Take your ricotta and place in a cheese cloth or a clean dry Kitchen towel, you want to squeeze out as much liquid from your ricotta. You can keep your ricotta wrapped up in the clean kitchen towel for about 20-30 minutes to dry it out as much as possible. If using a cheesecloth, you can try and suspend your cheese cloth over a bowl so water drips out. Set aside. After draining you get less total weight of ricotta.
- In a large bowl and add your ricotta and butternut squash puree.
- Add nutmeg, salt, pepper and egg and use a fork to mix all the ingredients together so they are well combined.
- Add your grated parmesan and mix in.
- Grab a large serving dish or baking sheet and place semolina into the dish. Divide your dough into 14 balls, I use a tablespoon. It will be tacky so literally scoop the ricotta mixture and place a blob of the mixture in the serving dish with semolina.
- When all the dough is divided, use your hand to coat the dollops of ricotta and squash into semolina so they can be rolled out in your hands forming as perfect of a sphere are you can make.
- The semolina coated ricotta and squash, should be placed back in the sheet of semolina, and more semolina added over top to make sure all the balls are properly coated. You essentially want to get as much semolina on the outside of these spheres so an outer shell can form.
- Place these semolina coated spheres in the fridge to dry for 18-24 hours for best results I keep them uncovered. You want the semolina coating to dry and harden so that they hold together when cooking. I turn then over and lightly reshape about twice while they were drying in the first.
- When ready to cook after at least 18 hours, place a pot of water on the stove and salt generously. I don’t make mine as salty as pasta water (as salty as the ocean), but I place a large pinch of salt in my water.
- The pot of water should be very hot but should not have a rolling boil (large bubbles).
- Remove your gnudi from the fridge, and very very carefully place your formed gnudi into the water and boil for under 5 minutes until they begin to float. They are extremely fragile so a light touch is definitely needed.
- Serving Suggestion: Remove from water and you serve with sage and brown butter with a squeeze of lemon if you like. Carefully place your gnudi in your pan with brown butter and sage and carefully spoon brown butter over your gnudi, basting it. Plate it up and enjoy with more parmesan on top! It you don’t have a non stick pan, I suggest just plating your gnudi on a serving plate and spoon your brown butter directly over your gnudi without basting it in the pan.
