I’ve had a rough week in the kitchen. I am always trying new things, so it occasionally will set me up for some failures. Rarely, I’ll get a couple strung back to back. This happened to me on Monday and Tuesday with a couple of awful meals. Worst of all, they were awful at least partially due to how I cooked them. One dish came out slightly too crisp and the second had a broth with so little flavor that it couldn’t be saved. Every failure is a learning process though. I never really learn something without first fucking it up.

This gnudi pasta was foreign to me. It frankly scared me a little, especially coming off of back to back dinner failures. The premise of a pasta dough (something I am getting quite good at) with only half a cup of flour seems sort of… crazy?

On the note of failure, I attempted a different version of this, with limited results. It was from Food and Wine and seemed to have quite a bit more flour. I still ended up adding much more in order to even be able to handle the dough. It basically ended up as a fancy’ish gnocchi. The dish was tasty, but not quite what I was going for. The tomato sauce was fantastic and decadent though. I’ll definitely be making that again in the future.

I found a different recipe on “the paupered chef” and attempted a go at it. The results? Incredible.

Gnudi with Sage Brown Butter
from the paupered chef

serves 2 to 3 as a main – 6 as a starter

• 1 cup fresh ricotta cheese (this is my go-to recipe. completely worth the effort. draining overnight helps)
• 1 cup grated Parmesan – extra optional for topping
• 2 eggs and 1 egg yolk
• 1 tsp grated nutmeg
• 1/2 cup all purpose flour
• 4 cups semolina flour
• 3 tbsp unsalted butter
• 10-12 sage leaves

Combine the ricotta (make sure it is well drained), parmesan, eggs and nutmeg in a large bowl. Whisk with a fork until everything is very well combined. Then incorporate the flour a bit at a time. You are trying to get rid of enough stickiness so that you can handle the dough. This may take an extra tablespoon or two of flour. The end dough will still be pretty tacky though.

Line a dish with a layer of semolina flour.

Flour your hands well and roll out roughly 1 inch balls. Place into the semolina flour and re-flour your hands. This step was pretty messy for me since my dough was still very tacky. The less flour that you use, the less dense the pasta will be in the long run. We are shooting for a pillowy, almost dumping style dough.

Once all of your pasta is in balls, completely cover them with semolina flour. Cover the entire dish and stick it in your fridge overnight. This will let the pasta develop a doughy crust, but the semolina flour will ensure that it stays moist. This is the bulk of your work. You can safely let things sit in the fridge for an extra night if you need to (I did).

The next night, everything is very easy. Dig the pasta out of the flour and set aside to warm up to room temperature. You can save the semolina for other purposes if you sift it.

Get a large pot of salted water boiling.

In the meantime, heat a pan with the butter in it over medium-high heat. When the butter begins to boil (keep an eye on it), throw the sage leaves in. The leaves will color slightly and the butter will brown. Remove it from the heat when this happens. If you aren’t watching, it could burn.

Boil the pasta for about 1 minute until it floats to the top. These cook incredibly fast. Transfer them to the warmed brown butter and sage, cook them a bit and serve with the sage and a bit of Parmesan if you like.