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O Tama Carey is the owner of Lankan Filling Station. Her first cookbook is Lanka Food. She is a food editor of The Saturday Paper.
Credit: Photographed remotely by Earl Carter
I was thinking spring thoughts and these delightful, fluffy dumplings came to mind. If you have never had them, think of a cross between gnocchi and a delicate, simple ravioli filling. The mix is made and left to rest in flour or semolina to firm up and form a thin skin. You blanch them to cook, and as you bite there’s a thin layer of resistance before they become an elegant mouthful with an unexpectedly gentle and soft texture.
The word gnudi in Italian translates to naked – it’s basically a pasta dish undressed of its pasta. Traditionally gnudi are served with a burnt butter sauce, with or without sage. It’s all about the subtle milky flavour of ricotta.
I used to make them at a former restaurant but I couldn’t find my recipe. As it turns out, the idea was from my partner so, not for the first time, I plagiarised his. In more recent times, they have appeared on his menu again with an excellent whey sauce, reminding me of why I loved them so much.
You will need specific equipment, time and fresh ricotta. A stand mixer with a paddle attachment is best, as is a piping bag. You can improvise, but the mix does need to be just right to get the correct texture so prepare for some trial and error. Time is important as you must drain your ricotta – again this goes to texture – and once the mix is made, the gnudi need to be well coated and firm to cook properly without falling apart and also to have the correct texture.
As for ingredients, there’s no room to hide with something that has so few, which means the quality of your ricotta is paramount. The parmesan should be a nice bitey, sharp one as it serves as a foil. The sauce recipe here veers off the track of purity a little and adds a little garlic for kick, anchovy for saltiness, asparagus for its spring sweetness and a little bitter sage to balance. All these flavours play happily with ricotta. If you don’t like anchovies, simply omit, and if asparagus isn’t to your taste, swap it for peas or broad beans.
As with all seemingly simple recipes, there is much that can go wrong and there is not enough room here to explain all the ways to fix and understand. Once you get it, though, you will be pleased with these beauties, while you wax lyrical about the bountiful produce of this season and what other ideas you can borrow from your partner.
Time: 30 minutes to prep and make + overnight resting
This article was first published in the print edition of The Saturday Paper on October 1, 2022 as "Best undressed".
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O Tama Carey is the owner of Lankan Filling Station. Her first cookbook is Lanka Food. She is a food editor of The Saturday Paper.
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