Making Gnudi

A recent post got me thinking about gnudi, dumplings I once made every day for 2 weeks of my life, then – for no good reason - never again. "Gnudi" is Italian for “nude,” an appropriate word to describe these sensual, ethereal dumplings which - when done right - have an incredibly delicate, smooth skin that - when it makes contact with the diner’s tongue - can cause the most distracting fantasies to take hold. Maybe the Puritan hiding somewhere deep in my soul told me I had better stop making these for so many years, but my more predominant lascivious side has reemerged, so I whipped up a batch this week.

Though the process takes a few days, making gnudi couldn’t be much simpler. The ingredient list is small:

Gnudi Ingredients:

- About 12 oz of ricotta
- A little heavy cream
- 4 cups of semolina
- pinch of salt

Beat the ricotta, salt and a little cream with a wooden spoon until it is smooth and thick. You're looking for something smooth but not viscous, as it needs to be fairly pliable.

Batter, dough, or whatever you want to call it:



Put 3 cups of semolina into a large baking dish or rimmed sheet pan, and 1 cup into a smaller, deeper container that has a cover (smaller container needs to be big enough to hold all the finished dumplings in one non-touching layer). Then take little spoonfuls of the ricotta mix and drop them into the large semolina filled pan:

Ricotta spoonfuls ready to be rolled around in semolina:


Roll them around just a little in the semolina, forming some sort of cylindrical shape, and getting the balls coated with the flour. Then place the balls into the smaller container (not touching each other!) and dump in the first pan’s semolina to cover the balls. Place the lid on the container, and refrigerate it for 2 days.

About to be covered in semolina, then covered with a lid and refrigerated:


Here’s the key. As easy as making gnudi is, there is one way to screw it up: impatience. The only way to form that incredibly delicate skin it to wait long enough for the ricotta to just barely hydrate the flour. Too little hydration, and the things will fall apart when you poach them. Too much, and the skin will be tough and rubbery.

So, after they’ve been in the refrigerator for 2 days, remove them to a plate or sheet pan, and put them back in the refrigerator. This time you will leave them alone in the refrigerator, uncovered, for 24 hours. I have found that 24 hours is ideal, but you can get away with 12 hours (will have to be very careful when cooking) or 48 hours (won’t be quite as ethereal, but still really good). So, the ideal total refrigeration time is 72 hours (48 covered with flour and container lid, 24 hours naked with air circulating around them). When they're ready, they will feel quite firm to the touch.

After 72 hours of refrigeration, ready to poach:


When the refrigeration time is up, poach them for 3 minutes in simmering water (overcooking will cause dense, rubbery nudes. Who wants that?). I usually cook just 6-7 at a time, then transfer them to a warm, waiting sauce. This time, I made a sweet pea sauce: fresh peas sautéed in butter, pureed with whole milk and strained before being warmed in a saucepan with heavy cream and a healthy pinch of nutmeg, salt and pepper.

Pea sauce cooking (pureed peas, cream, fresh nutmeg, s+p):


Gnudi with pea sauce:



Making gnudi is fun. Eating gnudi is even more fun. What you might want to do after eating gnudi has the potential to be the most fun of all.

Thanks for a very intriguing and informative post. I happen to be a huge fan of semolina dumplings and this sounds like a great experiment for the long weekend approaching. Never heard of them before but those pics sure made them seem do-able and delicious!

GB,

I hope you make a batch, and look forward to hearing how it goes. A note about the semolina: though the recipe calls for 4 cups, almost all of that is just to serve as a cushion while the gnudi rest in the fridge. When the dumplings were ready to poach, I measured how much semolina I had left: a little over 3.5 cups. Something less than 1/2 cup of semolina went into the whole batch. Maybe even significantly less. Plenty to save for a semolina cake, which is what I plan to do with it this weekend.

KZ

The first gnudi of 2010:

Gnudi con Salsa di Peperoni:


Sauce has green peppers and garlic cooked with white wine, pureed and strained - then a pinch of nutmeg and a touch of cream to finish.

I wish I had a better camera and photography skills so I could show the delicate skin that surrounds these dumplings - really the thing that makes them special.

I wonder if I could make Gnudi with Atta (Chapati) flour, which is also made from durum wheat - as it stands, if I add another flour to our collection, we'll have to move.

Nice work, Kenny - I look forward to the posts in the future where you aren't cooking solo. This looks to be a good recipe for that purpose...

Kennyz wrote:... show the delicate skin that surrounds these dumplings - really the thing that makes them special.

That is interesting, and I'm going to try this. The gnudi I've had/made were basically ravioli filling minus the pasta. Thanks for posting.

Jeff

jvalentino wrote:

Kennyz wrote:... show the delicate skin that surrounds these dumplings - really the thing that makes them special.

That is interesting, and I'm going to try this. The gnudi I've had/made were basically ravioli filling minus the pasta. Thanks for posting.

Jeff

that's not a bad description. It's filling with a very delicate skin that I wouldn't liken to pasta. There is very little flour that ends up in the final product. The skin has a texture similar to the outer layer of burrata cheese, and if you didn't know better you might think the dumplings were pure cheese with no flour at all.

Kennyz wrote:....I once made every day for 2 weeks of my life, then – for no good reason - never again.

Making gnudi is fun. Eating gnudi is even more fun. What you might want to do after eating gnudi has the potential to be the most fun of all.

Kenny,

I also spent a few weeks working on a gnudi recipe and came up with the following ingredients.

1 pint whole milk ricotta, small batch (drained, chopped)
1 large egg (broken up)
2 Tbsp. minced fresh basil or more to taste
2 Tbsp. minced fresh parsley
kosher salt to taste
1/4 tsp. ground black pepper
1/8 tsp. fresh ground nutmeg

1/2 cup grated Parmesan Reggiano cheese
1/2 cup semolina flour

1-2 Tbsp. flour, as needed

My recipe uses similar procedures. We like to serve it with herb butter or lightly sauteed. It is ethereal!

Tim

Small batch ricotta is crucial for texture. You can get this at an Italian grocery or better yet, make your own from manufacturer's cream. This is very simple; I'd be happy to share recipes.

Tim,

That sounds good. I've made gnudi with herbs similar to your recipe, and it can be excellent. Often I prefer to make my blander dumplings because when I start the process, I usually haven't decided what kind of sauce to make yet.

I do wonder about the effect of using an egg in the recipe. I'd stay away from it because I don't think I'd prefer the binding effect I suspect it has. The beauty of gnudi, to me, is that they're so light that leave you wondering how the heck they stay together while poaching. I'd worry about losing that with an egg.

KZ

Kenny,

When I was working on the recipe, I began with a recipe from The Spotted Pig and others. All used eggs, I assume for the flavor as well as binding qualities. The gnudi are still pretty fragile with the egg included in the recipe.

We usually roll a rope of dough and cut and shape much like potato gnocchi. Yes, we only hold them overnight. Simmer (in stock) till they float and cook for 2 minutes. Then sauce or sautee for a minute in good butter. As you know, the result is much better than potato gnocchi, and never heavy.

Thanks for your thoughts,

Tim

Kennyz wrote:I wish I had a better camera and photography skills so I could show the delicate skin that surrounds these dumplings - really the thing that makes them special.

I am available and will work for gnudi!

Hmmmm......how would one make these gluten free? It's been many years since I've seen semolina flour. What is the texture akin to?

They look so delicious.

Edited to add: well, a quick surf and I've found several people who've made them GF. Here's one link if any GF people want to give it a try. I know I will.

ViewsAskew wrote:Hmmmm......how would one make these gluten free? It's been many years since I've seen semolina flour. What is the texture akin to?

They look so delicious.

Edited to add: well, a quick surf and I've found several people who've made them GF. Here's one link if any GF people want to give it a try. I know I will.

hmm, glad to see someone trying an alternative, but I must say that the description of those GF gnudi does not make them sound like gnudi at all. The cornmeal created what the author called a "crunchy coating," which is just about exactly opposite the way gnudi should be.

Where would one find small batch ricotta? I made gnudi on Thursday night, kept it covered until Saturday night, then uncovered it to make for dinner on Sunday.

It was a total flop. The shredded as soon as they hit the water. I used ricotta from Tony's Deli (it was hard, but I shredded it), mixed it with heavy cream, used semolina flour from Tony's and a bit of salt. Put into simmering water.

I checked for small batch ricotta at Fresh Farms on Sunday, and didn't find it in the cheese kiosk. I am guessing that I used the wrong cheese. The only other ricotta I have seen is the ricotta in a tub at Dominicks and at Fresh Farms.

I want to try again this week...but looking for brand names / locations of where I can find the correct cheese to use.

CM2772 wrote:It was a total flop. The shredded as soon as they hit the water. I used ricotta from Tony's Deli (it was hard, but I shredded it),....

Sounds like you used ricotta salata, which is not what you want for gnudi. You want a regular ricotta - creamy but not wet. Definitely not anything that you could use a shredder on.

Whenever it's available, I buy goat or sheep milk ricotta from Prairie Fruits farm, which has a stand at the Green City and Oak Park farmers markets. Though it's wonderful stuff, it's not always available - so any decent imported brand will do. Again - the key is not to use ricotta salata. If all you can get is some relatively commercial brand like Organic Valley, that works if you drain it in a colander set over a bowl for about 45 minutes. It's a little wetter than I like otherwise.

I thought this looked like an interesting project, so I started it on Sunday. Last night was the big cooking night. I thought they were good, but not the "silken ethereal" that I was expecting. It was like a little dumpling. I suspect it takes a few attempts to get it just right. Anyway, I did enjoy the challenge! By the way, what semolina flour recipe did you use for your cake?

razbry wrote:I thought this looked like an interesting project, so I started it on Sunday. Last night was the big cooking night. I thought they were good, but not the "silken ethereal" that I was expecting. It was like a little dumpling. I suspect it takes a few attempts to get it just right. Anyway, I did enjoy the challenge! By the way, what semolina flour recipe did you use for your cake?

Nice to see people giving gnudi a shot. Yeah, I suspect that practice helps. The "silken ethereal" effect might have to do with how you "cream" the batter before rolling it in the flour. I just use a wooden spoon, but I beat the ricotta with cream pretty ferociously until it's quite smooth. A blender might work for this step too, but I always prefer manual over automatic cooking processes. Machines take away some of the enjoyment I get out of cooking.

The semolina "cake" I made would probably be better termed a pudding. No recipe, but basically I took some semolina flour (maybe 2 cups?) and cooked it on the stovetop with a mixture of sugar (3/4 cup?), milk and cream (1.5 cups?), then beat in eggs (2?) and lemon zest (one lemon?). I didn't measure anything, but tasted along the way to make sure it seemed right. I poured that mixture into a loaf pan and baked it in a water bath for about an hour. Sliced and served with berries.

KennyZ...you semolina creation looks pretty darn good. Now if you want the BEST fresh raspberries go here [url]upberries.com[/url] I ended up getting a semolina type cake recipe off the internet. It was nothing more than the flour, sugar and butter. The recipe then called for pouring a simple syrup (infused with lemon or orange) over the cake once it was cooked. I had some raspberry jelly that I had just made, so I put that on the "cake". It is sitting right now outside my office as an experimental offering. The people I work with are used to such things from me. Trouble is, I'm their supervisor, and they aren't ever going to tell me the truth about what they really think of my creations!

2011 Edition...

Gnudi with Pesto alla Trapanese:


Fantastic but admittedly imperfect. I was too impatient to let the ricotta come to room temperature before starting the process, so had to add too much cream to make it viscous enough to beat with my wooden spoon. The result was a wetter than normal dough which had a negative effect on the usually-ethereal end product. The gnudi still had a pleasant, delicate skin, and that pesto is so good that you could just slap a dollop of high quality ricotta in the middle of the bowl and have a hell of a dish, especially with some decent bread to sop it all up.