Homemade Ricotta Gnocchi From Scratch – Easy Italian Recipe!

A sensational classic that begs to be on your table! An Italian favorite for a reason!

⬇️⬇️ Recipe ⬇️⬇️

PRINTABLE RECIPE: https://www.laurainthekitchen.com/recipes/ricotta-gnocchi/

GNOCCHI RECIPE:
For the Sauce:
1 lb of Ground Beef, 85/15 is my preference
3 Tbsp of Extra Virgin Olive Oil
1 Medium Yellow Onion, minced
28oz can of Tomato Puree” (or 24 oz cento bottle)
3/4 cup of Dry White or Red wine
Fresh Basil
Salt to taste

For the Gnocchi:
15oz of Whole Milk Ricotta, drained overnight
1 cup of All Purpose Flour
8oz of Grated Parmigiano or half parm half pecorino
1 Large Egg plus 1 Egg Yolk
Pinch of Salt

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00:00 – Intro
02:55 – Make the Sauce
06:25 – Make the Gnocchi
13:20 – Cook the Gnocchi
14:40 – Finish Up
15:04 – Dig In!

we are making a classic rot nyaki and
I’m going to serve mine with meat sauce
and I cannot wait to show you how to
make them because they’re very very easy
but they’re so delicious and such a
classic over the years I’ve had many of
you ask me for the recipe the thing is
is that when I was growing up my NAA
never made motaki my NAA always made a
potato based yyi so that’s sort of what
I’m most familiar with and what I have
made my whole life which fun fact it was
the very first thing I ever learned to
cook or I should say it was the very
first thing I cooked with Man na my job
was to roll the nyaki um we got that
nyaki was sort of new to me and really
the first time that I had them this way
which to me is like so classic is when I
went to Tuscany like 5 years ago um and
they’re phenomenal so I’m going to show
them to you because I’ve made the recipe
since and they’re really easy but we’re
actually going to start with a sauce I
am doing a meat sauce a very simple meat
sauce I’ve got good extra virgin olive
oil I’m going to add my ground beef now
here’s the thing I of I often get
questions from people why do you do the
beef first and not your onions and the
reason is is because depending on how
fatty your beef is I want to get rid of
some of that fat um and if I do the
onions and then add the beef in there’s
a good chance I’m going to wash away or
take away some of that onion flavor and
all of the juices that collect in the
bottom of that pot with the onions and
all that um so that’s why I do it this
way I’m doing a red onion and you want
to know why I wouldn’t ordinarily do a
red
onion I would do usually do a yellow
onion but I
thought when I was at the grocery store
I thought that I was grabbing a bag of
onion that has half red half yellow and
I didn’t I grabbed all red but really
it’s absolutely fine I’m going to dice
the onion really small my meat sauce is
a very simple very classic and very very
straightforward and I am just going to
do it exactly like I was taught did you
know another fun
fact Italian Italian and I mean like if
you go to
Italy most Italians I would say
90% of Italian dishes call for either
garlic or onions very very
few recipes call for both and in a sauce
you would either have one or the other
now there have been times where I add
both because it’s my preference Nona
would never allow garlic in a meat sauce
because she wants the sweetness and
flavor of onion so here’s a fun fact I’m
just going to dice this onion and I am
just going to wait for my beef to be
pretty much fully cooked through so then
I can estimate whether or not I want to
get rid of any fat just break it
apart as much as you can as it
Cooks beef is looking spiff okay it’s
about really cooked through I’m going to
add my onions there’s not much fat in
there um even though I use an 8515
because if you know me you
know just super lean ground beef is just
not my favorite certainly we can give it
moisture we can bul it up but it’s just
a little too lean for a sauce for my
liking so 885 15 feels like the perfect
spot a little salt I’m going to let that
cook down I want those um onions to cook
down a bit just a few minutes I mean
they’re going to get a few hours cooking
in the sauce but I just want to give
them a head start so let those go a bit
in terms of sauce I’m using Pata when I
wrote my book I wanted to give you as
much information as possible I wanted
you to feel like you just came into my
kitchen opened up my cupboards opened up
my pantry and you saw my favorite brands
of things what I actually use in terms
of like the brand of salt and one of the
things I mentioned is this Pata because
I think the chento Pata whether it’s the
rustia or traditional the traditional I
love and it’s a really good bank for
your buck as well um so this is what
I’ll be using today but any can of
tomato puree will work you could
essentially even do a can of like or jar
of homemade crushed tomatoes or tomatoes
for for slow cook sauce I actually
prefer to use a puree or Pata because
mine are reserved for quicker cooking
saes so that I don’t lose that summer
tomato flavor so that’s that so I’m just
going to cook this down all the the
point to that is I even mentioned a
specific brand in the book because it
works really well for slow cook
sauces the glaze with some wine you
could use white or red just make sure
they’re dry I’m using white either will
do both will need a good amount of
cooking time to really sort of cook down
that really
sharp acidity but it’s going to do such
good things in the pot for a long time
if you don’t want to use any wine at all
don’t I’m not even worried about cooking
it out too much because again this is
going to have hours of cooking time take
your jar fill a halfway up with some
water usually any can any jar we’ll need
this wash the jars might don’t know
would
say add it
in beautiful this is going to
intensify thicken do gorgeous things I’m
just grabbing a few little Snippets of
Basil I’m going to go rinse it off real
quick I’m going to add it
in add your basil in and now I’m just
going to cover this up put it on as low
as it goes vent it just a tiny bit cook
it for three hours two and a half to
three hours I want that to be really
well cooked I’ll season it halfway
through you season it halfway through
with some salt and if you want depending
on the kind of tomato that you’re using
you might want to add a pinch of sugar
to balance all the acidity between the
wine and the Tomato but I’m just going
to let it
go sauce is ready look how gorgeous and
thick it cooked for a few hours I added
a few fresh leaves of Basil it’s well
seasoned it’s good to go let’s work on
the rotta now this is rotta let me bring
this closer to you to me I should say
this is a 15 o container of ricota I
love the Galbani brand but any brand
that you like just please use whole milk
Rota and I have a draining over some
paper towels over a Sie you want to do
this a minimum of about 6 hours before
but really 24 hours in advance is your
best bet you want to really get rid of
as much liquid and water out of the
ricota as possible um and now it’s at a
really good thix stage so very easy SA
if you’re using paper towel also works
really great if you want to use coffee
filters add that right in save your
paper because you’re going to keep your
dough covered you see how it’s really
nice and thick this resembles fresh
frota which is really the best thing to
do to make something like this with it’s
really thick um it’s Perfection I’m
going to use two eggs now these are our
fresh eggs from our chicks if you’re
using standard large eggs from the
grocery store use one large egg egg and
one egg yolk but these are a little bit
smaller so I’m just going to use two
whole eggs but like I said standard
American eggs large eggs from a store
you want to use a whole egg and a yolk
and I added a pinch of salt and you’re
going to want to mix this just
until that egg well those eggs I should
say are somewhat combined in the now
next step is your flour and your parm
and I want to talk to you about the parm
because this is really important
ordinarily when you’re using graded parm
I’ll give you an amount like a half a
cup or something like that except for
this I am giving you a more accurate
measurement you want about 6ish ounces
of graded parm and the reason I say that
is because it does it does matter that
you’re using the right weight because if
you’re using a half a cup of you know
graded Palm on your microplane it’s only
going to equal out to about an ounce
because it’s so fine and you this is
going to be a main part of your binder
so it’s a good you know good amount keep
2 oz aside because if you need a little
bit more you have it but usually about 6
oz of gritted parm works out perfectly
and you add your flour in I have a
baking sheet next to me that’s been
lined with parchment paper and dusted
with flour you can even use some simola
if you want to this is good have some
flour use a whole 8 oz of par have some
flour near you because you’re going to
need it for your work
surface uh your pot of water should be
coming up to a boil you just kind of
want to have everything ready for you
heavily dust your surface cuz this is a
quite a sticky dough you know but it is
Sensational very good and very easy like
I said the dough will be sticky
especially in the very beginning use a
bench scraper to help you pull it
together continue to dust your flour as
needed right cuz you just don’t want it
to be sticky you don’t want it to be dry
but you do not want this to be wet and
sticky that looks perfect to
me
yep make sure you place it on a piece
and you can keep one of these little
paper towels to keep it covered so no
nothing forms I’m going to cut this into
eight
pieces flour your knife as you go and
I’ll show you how to do
one okay cut it into eight just little
wedges and like I said keep flower handy
because this is going to be a little bit
tacky
okay you’re going to roll this into a
log you see how it’s it’s tender and you
want enough flour so that it’s not
sticking to you but you don’t want
enough flour so that it’s kind of dry
and crumbling which is why it’s really
important that you’re using the right
measurements um otherwise it’s just not
going to be good roll it to about I’d
say 12 in little rope take a sharp knife
and unlike a potato noi you’re not you
don’t have a need to roll this on
a fork or a YY board or anything of the
sort dip your
knife if you feel like it needs to and
basically what you’re making are like
little
pillows and they are so good they cook
up so fast see how nice and just place
them on your baking sheet that’s been
well prepped you can also like I told
you add semolina instead of flour I
don’t happen to have any and to be
honest with you I never really remember
to it’s that one thing I just don’t
really remember to buy often usually buy
it more during the summer when I’m
making pizzas outside um but you know
this works just as well do not panic
because they are light as a feather but
yet still have a good amount of chew to
them my sister is crazy for this noie
and she’s going to be so happy when she
comes home today cuz she’s been begging
me to make them so that’s it that’s how
you do it I’m going to take another one
again and very lightly as I go flour my
work surface just you know rock and roll
make sure that the water is up to a boil
because it’s nice to be able to cook
them but here’s the thing you can also
freeze them if you don’t want to cook
them right now you place the whole
baking sheet in your freezer for about
an hour until the Yi are uh somewhat you
know Frozen and then you take them off
the sheet pen place them on in a large
ziplock bag close them up and when you
want to cook them cook them from Frozen
they take an additional 30 seconds to
cook and they are Perfection so if you
want to double the recipe on the day
you’re making YY and bring a friend over
maybe even triple the recipe that’s
great make some for tonight and then
store some in the freezer for another
time
perfect water is up to a boil you can
let them rest like 15 minutes you can
flash freeze them for 5 minutes if you
want or like I said at this point you
can just throw them just like this on
the baking sheet in the freezer till
they’re frozen then you have them but
they are ready to go cooked from the
very beginning I like to place them on a
spider a kitchen spider shake off excess
flour your water make sure it’s well
seasoned and well boiled they well
seasoned uh and up to a boil they take
like 30 seconds to come up to well
cooking temperature you know so they
float to the top and then pretty much
cooked um I do them in batches just
simply because I don’t want want to drop
the temperature of the water and then I
have to wait for it to come back up but
you see how they’re starting to float
really easily now here’s something
that’s really important take a little
bit of your sauce place it in the bowl
so that they can be tossed wo it’s okay
they can be tossed with that sauce
because otherwise if you don’t they’re
all going to start to stick together
once they float to the stop and they
stay floating to the top they are done
and they’re pretty much there the
texture is perfect see see how they’re
now floating but they’re staying on the
top when they float and they’re kind of
going up and down up and down just wait
until they’re all the way up that’s it
takes 30 seconds and they’re gorgeous
look at
this they’re gorgeous the texture is
gorgeous everything about them is
beautiful give them a
stir just like that and then just do
your next batch you’re going to get them
all cooked in like 2
minutes last of
thei done
put them all on a nice platter look at
gorgeous look at how
stunning beautiful they’re so lovely
they’re so light they’re cheesy they’re
light I use all parm but you could
certainly use palm and pecorino I think
if you use all peino they’re going to be
really strong but you know if you like a
strong flavor of picino by all
means you know
look at that does that scream Sunday
dinner or
what oh my
gosh they’re so
light they’re like a little edible
pillow they’re light they’re delicious
that meat sauce with them I think is a
must have but you can do pesto brown
butter plain marinara completely up to
you this is just how I would prefer to
serve them cuz if I’m going through the
hassle of making homemade pasta or
homemade Yi I’m serving it with a meat
sauce but that’s just me recipe in
thekitchen.com hope you enjoy SP time
with me and I will see you in the next
one bye
[Music]