The great thing about cooking is that the more often you try a recipe, the better you get at it. As long as you’re not making Spinach and Ricotta Gnudi.
According to Wikipedia, gnudi (pronounced “nude-ee”) are gnocchi-like dumplings made with ricotta cheese and semolina. The result, Wikipedia claims, are light, “pillowy” dumplings.
Sound delicious? Yeah, I thought so, too. But what Wikipedia neglects to mention is that gnudi are little pillows of punishment for the person trying to create them.
I’ve attempted Spinach and Ricotta Gnudi three times in the last two weeks. A lot of ricottas have died in vain, and here’s what I’ve learned:
Attempt #1: When a recipe says to dry the cooked spinach well before blending with the ricotta, they must mean to dry the spinach for two hours in an industrial-sized clothes dryer. Otherwise, when you boil the gnudi, you end up with spinach and ricotta soup.
Attempt #2: When a recipe says to hang the ricotta in cheesecloth to let it dry before blending with the spinach, they must mean to hang the bag of ricotta in front of an industrial-sized fan for two days. Otherwise, when you boil the gnudi, you end up with spinach and ricotta soup.
Attempt #3: When a recipe says to leave the gnudi in the fridge until a delicate skin forms around them, they must mean to leave the gnudi in the fridge for two weeks to mummify. Otherwise, when you boil the gnudi, you end up with spinach and ricotta soup.
I’ve eaten three pots of spinach and ricotta soup. I don’t like it. I also don’t like the fact that the plural of gnudi is gnudi. That’s just lazy. But maybe I’m being irritable—I’m bloated from all the soup I’ve been eating lately.
Brenda: As you know, the best Home Economics Teacher in High School in all of Ontario was your very own Mother. That is going back a few years but I am sure she still is the best and I thought of her immediately when I read your blog. What would she have done differently, was my first thought? My second thought was, “good for Brenda…..she experimented THREE times so she is a winner as well. I would have put the whole thing in the garbage pail after about the second attempt.
Keep up the effort Brenda because this is how errors and omissions get the original recipe corrected with better instructions.
All the best
Arnie
From an “old” Friend
I think my mom – who has a lot more foresight than I do – would have looked the recipe over and decided it was WAY too hard to be worth the effort 🙂