If you’ve ever been too intimidated to make your own pasta, gnocchi is a great place to start. And if regular potato gnocchi seems like too much work, well ricotta gnocchi is the way to go. This Italian pasta dumpling has three – yes just THREE! – ingredients and doesn’t require the use of a pasta maker. You just mix together ricotta, flour, and an egg and gently knead it until it comes together. After a brief rest in the fridge, you roll the dough into snakes and cut into gnocchi of whatever size you like. Cook in boiling water for 3 to 5 minutes and you’re done.
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I’ve had plenty of gnocchi in my day, and it’s run the whole spectrum from simultaneously heavy and mushy to heavenly perfection. I find that it’s much easier and more foolproof to hit that delicate, airy note with ricotta gnocchi than potato ones. And they require even less prep! Score. If you feel like that’s too easy, you can always make your own ricotta (seriously folks, it takes under an hour – check out my recipe here, where this recipe for ricotta gnocchi was originally published as well). But store-bought ricotta works just as well. The other thing I love about gnocchi is that it’s great with just about any sauce – I tossed it with a simple marinara sauce here, but meaty bolognese, nutty pesto, or creamy vodka sauce would all work just as well.
- 12 ounces ricotta
- 2 cups “00†pasta flour, divided (substitute all purpose flour)
- 1 egg
- Put the ricotta, 1 cup of the flour, and the egg in a large bowl and stir with a wooden spoon to combine.
- Begin kneading the dough with your hands. The amount of flour you need to add will depend on how much moisture is in your ricotta, and how long you let it strain. Continue adding flour, ¼ cup at a time, until you have a smooth, elastic dough that is soft but not overly sticky.
- Roll into a ball and wrap in plastic wrap. Refrigerate for 30 minutes.
- Separate the ball into 8 or so pieces. Working one at a time, roll out on a floured work surface into a long, even snake.
- Using a pastry cutter or knife cut the snake into ½-inch segments and transfer to a parchment paper-lined plate or baking sheet.
- Repeat with the remaining dough.
- Bring a large pot of salted water to a boil.
- Add the gnocchi all at once and cook, stirring often, for 3 to 5 minutes, until they all float to the surface.
- Drain and immediately toss with your favorite pasta sauce.
Thank you for hosting!
Oh my … I love ricotta and gnocchi … so I know I’d love ricotta gnocchi!
And only three ingredients? I’m sold!
Great recipe as usual!
Your gnocci looks fabulous Katherine. I’ve never tried making my own gnocci before. I am now dying to try.
Thanks for hosting. I linked up three this time, you know my love affair with pizza which leads to lots of cheese posts. Lol!
I love gnocchi, these look like little pillows of perfection!
Another exquisite recipe, but no surprise there. Thank you Katherine!
I love gnocchi SO much–isn’t it great that they’re easy to make too? I could eat a plate of these right now!
So much cheesy deliciousness! Thanks for another mouth-watering week. I am looking forward to checking out some of these wonderful recipes!
Wow, your gnocchi look amazing! I love the step-by-step pictorial. I dropped off some gnudi to go with your gnocchi 🙂
Delicious recipe!! I will share my halloumi recipe. I hope you had the chance to taste this Cypriot cheese. It is delicious!
I have been craving pasta lately. This looks fantastic and so easy!
My picky daughter loves gnocchi…and this is the same 3 ingredient recipe I’ve used. I’ve overdue to try this again…yours looks perfect!
Thank you so much for hosting! Tweeted about the blog hop, too 🙂
Thank you, thank you, thank you for this easy and obvious delicious gnocchi recipe! I’ll definitely have to try this! Thanks for hosting and I hope you have a marvelous weekend!
LOVE your ricotta gnocchi! I was going to add mine to the linky, but it pales in comparison to yours! I made them years ago..and too big..more like a gnudi! I wish I could snap my fingers and have your plate of ricotta gnocchi right in front me – right now! Better than 5-star Italian restaurant quality!
Katherine your dish looks brilliant. I do want to try when I get some more time. Sorry I havent visited lately computer cash and burn!
This looks so great!! And versatile! Thanks for hosting/sharing–I’ll be back with something to share asap…..Janice
This gnocchi looks perfect. You make it look so easy!
Aaaand bookmarking this right now. I need to make this!
A beautifully presented and flavoursome dinner 😀
Cheers
Choc Chip Uru
Have not made gnocchi for ever 🙂 ! Remember enjoying shaping them, somehow satisfying! Just three ingredients here and one of them my favourite ricotta: will be tried straight after the Olympics – it’s big bowls of thick wintery soups and Moroccan stews with plenty of leftovers to save time at the moment 🙂 !
You have my attention! Only three ingredients really? I just devoured a bowl of gnocchi today, and said I need to pull out my fun gnocchi maker:-) Beautiful, Hugs, Terra
What a wonderful blog! So glad to have found it.l Great recipes and mouthwatering pics, brava!
A lovely meal! I have not made ricotta gnocchi yet…guess it’s time!
Nice recipe. I’ve made plenty of gnocchi, but never out of ricotta. Looks super easy, and I imagine it’s super tasty. I’ll definitely have to give this a try – thanks.
My girls and I love making gnocchi but, I must admit, I have never seen such a simple, yet surely delicious recipe! We’ll be giving this one a try soon!
These look so good! I bet I’d love them!
Delicious! Ricotta gnocchi are my absolute favourite! 🙂
I absolutely love gnocchi, I have never tried to make these before. This recipe sounds amazing and looks relatively easy too. I look forward to trying these. Thanks for posting!
I had been wanting to try and make gnocchi for quite some time and just made this last night. It was super easy and it tasted great! Surprisingly filling too. Even my boys loved the “marshmallow pasta” (they looked like mini marshmallows to them).
Kris I am so happy to hear that it came out well! Isn’t it a great recipe? I agree, it is surprisingly filling – it doesn’t look like it makes that much, but it really hits the spot. Thanks so much for reporting back!
This gnocchi looks so rich and delicious! I love all the entries here too!
These entries all look great!
And your gnocchi looks absolutely amazing. Can I come over for dinner?!
OH NO!! I totally missed this one! A cheese blog hop sounds like my thing. LOL! The ricotta gnocchi looks fantastic, K!
Katherine I am so behind. We did a road trip. I am still planning to visit everyone. Hopefully before this weeks hop. Gotta love summer. I’m exhausted. lol
Oh wow, mine has always been the heavy variety, and I make my own ricotta with the whey after I make cheese.. great simple recipe i shall try to make gnocchi again.. morning katherine! c
Damn! I wish I knew about this sooner because I prepared a spinach and ricotta gnocchi earlier this spring that is very similar to your recipe.
Can you make this with fat free ricotta? Or is the fat in the cheese necessary to hold the pasta together??
That’s a great question – I haven’t tried but I don’t see why not!
I found your site searching for a recipe for gnocchi recipes with ricotta cheese. I am choosing to use your recipe for tonights dinner!!! Thanks for explaining how the dough should feel! I can’t wait to eat!
Hi, Katherine,
I had bookmarked this to make and the day has come. Unfortunately, I am stymied trying to convert the units. My pot of ricotta (store-bought) is 250g and I need to know whether your measure was ounces by volume or weight. Anyway, I’m gonna wing it with the one egg and however much 00 flour feels right. 🙂
Fond regards,
Stacy
Oh no Stacy – you bring up such a good point! Oy I’ll need to make it again, confirm, and convert – I’ve been trying to be better about including metric and in fact use it more and more personally. Anyway, I know it’s too late but I believe I was talking ounces by weight, not volume… but I think winging it to see what feels right is the correct thing to do. Let me know how it turns out! And thanks so much for bringing the conversion thing to my attention 🙂
They turned out very nice, actually! I served the gnocchi with a browned butter sage sauce, and lots of extra Parmesan on top. I usually make potato gnocchi so I worked towards that consistency, but lighter, if you know what I mean.
Oh good! Happy to hear it. Sounds delicious with the brown butter and sage, yum!
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