Annalena goes back into the fray: spinach gnocchi

Those of you who follow this blog with some regularity may recall that Annalena has a love/hate relationship with gnocchi.  She loves them.  She loves eating them.  She loves making them.  But she always feels like she's making them badly.   Indeed, sometimes, she is.  Gnocchi (which means "dumplings," ragazzi), should be light.  There have been times when Annalena has felt that hers were more like fisherman's sinkers, than pasta.  BUT they need to be firm enough to hold together when boiled.  And Annalena has not solved the tension between keeping the things light, but also solid enough to cohere.

One way she has developed to try to solve the problem, is to avoid making POTATO gnocchi, which is the type we all know.  Frankly, Annalena finds most potato gnocchi to be made badly, and always regrets buying them.  In restaurants, she has a few places where they do, indeed, float, and she always has them.    But at home, she sticks to semolina gnocchi, butternut squash gnocchi and now, thanks to a new recipe:  spinach gnocchi.

This year, spinach seems to be the first "fresh" veggie that is appearing from the farms.  As the weather gets warmer, it will disappear, and make another short appearance in the autumn.  But for now, rather than the tough wintery greens that have been sustaining Annalena and the Guyman for months, spinach is on the menu every single week.  And why not?  It's tasty, it's good for you, and while one cannot say it is inexpensive, it makes us feel:  spring is actually here, albeit hiding.

The hardest part of this recipe, ragazzi, is waiting, because you need time to cool things down.  You really do.  If you try to do this when things are hot, you will burn yourself, and not make good product.  Let the water and the steam go off.  And with that in mind, let's get to work.

You need 2 pounds or so of fresh spinach.  At this time of year, you don't have to pull off the stems:  they are still very tender.  If you do this recipe and the stems are too tough to eat, buy extra spinach, and strip the leaves.  Also, Annalena cannot stress this enough, check for sandy spinach.  Spinach grows in loose soil, and it is frequently dirty.  Does she have to tell you to wash it?  WASH IT.

Now, when you have the spinach ready, put it in a pot, with about a quarter cup of water.  If your pot will not hold all the spinach, put in what it will hold, put it on moderately high heat, and wait for the   spinach to collapse.  It will not take long, and when  you have more room, put in the remaining spinach.  All in all, it will take you about ten minutes to do this.  Move the spinach to a bowl, and please let it cool completely.  If you can do this a day ahead of time, BRAVO.

When the spinach is cool, squeeze it.  Squeeze it until you get all the water out of it.  Now, get it into a food processor, and put about a quarter cup of that water back with it (or, if you didn't save it, a quarter cup of fresh water), and puree the stuff for about four minutes.  You want about a cup, and Annalena thinks you will be surprised to see that 2 pounds of spinach, which takes up a LOT of space in your groceries bag, reduces to about a cup of puree.

Put this into a bowl, and grate half a cup of a hard, grating cheese into it.  The original recipe Annalena saw called for grana padano, which is fine and dandy, but will probably require a separate shopping trip.  You can use parmesan, pecorino, or a combination of them.  Just something hard and sharp.  Also add two eggs, and a half cup of dry bread crumbs.  Try not to use the flavored ones here.  Scrape about a half teaspoon of nutmeg in (it makes a difference), and a half teaspoon of salt.  Now, stir in a quarter cup of flour. Do this gently.    You'll wind up with a very soft mass.

Get a cookie sheet, or a big platter or something akin to this, and spread out a hefty cup of flour on it.  Using a melon baller , if you want uniformity, or your hands if you're fine with irregulars, or whatever you like, start making small balls - about 2/3 - 1 inch in diameter.  Then roll them in flour, and put them aside.  Keep going.  Your hands are going to get messy.  Don't wet them.  Rub some flour on them.  If you add too much liquid here, you'll get gummy dumplings.

Most people now fill a large pot with water to cook these guys, but Annalena follows the advice of one of her mentors, Dana Tomassino, who uses a big skilled, filled with water.  Indeed, the skilled provides much more surface area.  So, fill your biggest pan about 2/3 full of water, and add a half teaspoon or so of salt.  Bring the water to a simmer, and CAREFULLY put the gnocchi in, one by one.  They will sink to the bottom of the pan, and your water will cloud up from the flour.  But that's all good.  When the gnocchi are ready, they will float to the top.  Scoop them out with a slotted spoon, and keep at it until you have them all cooked.

You need to do this whether you are going to eat them right away, or freeze them, because as they sit, they will hydrate and again, you will suffer from the curse of a gummy gnocco.    To freeze them, just let them cool, and sit with as much room as possible.  They can sit on each other, however, if you, like most of us, need space.

Sauce for these?  Well, if you are making a heavy tomato sauce, this is not the pasta to use.  These really call for melted butter, and some cheese over them.  But nothing more than that.

Annalena got about 40 gnocchi from this recipe, which is probably 5/6 appetizer servings, and no more than four entree servings.

If the recipe sounded easy, it is.  You should try it.  Add something new to your repertoire.  Annalena guarantees you'll be back. So will she, with other greens, like nettles.  Stay tuned.