Gnudi!

Back to the kitchen tonight after a very long hiatus brought on by 7 weekends of travel in the last 9 weeks, leaving very little time for grocery shopping or meal planning. I'm catching up on Top Chef DC, where gnudi was featured on a recent episode, and decided to try it with this recipe by Giada DeLaurentis. Delicious and hearty for a thunderstorm-y day.

Ingredients

* 1 cup whole milk ricotta cheese
* 1 pound frozen spinach, thawed and squeezed dry (I substituted fresh, finely chopped spinach)
* 1 cup grated Parmesan
* 2 eggs
* 2 egg yolks
* 1/4 teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg
* 1 teaspoon salt
* 1 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
* 5 tablespoons all-purpose flour, plus 1 cup for coating (I found it took a little more than 5 T flour to get the dumplings to stick together)
* Store bought marinara sauce, heated

Directions

Bring a large pot of salted water to a boil.

In a large bowl, mix ricotta, spinach, Parmesan cheese, eggs, and yolks. Stir in nutmeg, salt, pepper, and flour. Form mixture in to small, flattened balls.

Dredge the formed gnudi in flour to coat, tapping off the excess. Slide formed gnudi into the boiling water. Be careful not to overcrowd the pan; work in batches if necessary. Remove the gnudi using a slotted spoon after they float to the top and have cooked for about 4 minutes. (I found the dumplings rose after about 2.5 minutes and would recommend cooking them to 4 minutes total, as ours were a tiny bit soft.)

Arrange gnudi on a platter and lightly drizzle with marinara sauce.