Gnocchi Casentinesi

A characteristic Tuscan pasta recipe, of ancient origins and based on the charachteristic ricotta cheese of the area.

Ingredients

For 4 persons:

• 1 kg spinaches;
• 400 gr ricotta cheese;
• grated parmesan;
• 100 gr crumbs of stale bread;
• 100 gr white flour;
• nutmeg;
• 80 gr butter;
• 2-3 eggs;
• grated pecorino cheese;
• salt and pepper as needed.

Preparation

Preparation time: 40 minutes; cooking time: 20 minutes; difficulty: medium.

Soak the crumble in cool water. Weed the spinaches, wash them and boil into salted water. Strain, squeeze and chop them up, or use the vegetable mill with the smallest holes.

Put into a large container the ricotta cheese, the spinaches, 80 grams of grated Parmesan cheese, the bread crumbles once squeezed, a pinch of nutmeg, the flour, less a tablespoon, season it with a bit of salt and a generous pinch of black pepper. Beat the eggs and mix energetically all together, until all the ingredients will be perfectly amalgamated. Make many balls as big as walnuts and flour them.

Put the Gnocchi into boiling salted water; once they come afloat, throw them to the bottom of the pan and make them boil a few minutes more. Then strain and place them into warm soup plates. Spread some grated Pecorino cheese and sprinkle with butter.