Ricotta Gnocchi with Bolognese
Serves 4-6
Equipment
- Food processor
- Bowl
- Large pot
- Large Bowl
- Sheet tray
Ingredients
Bolognese
- 1 medium onion roughly chopped
- 2 carrots peeled and roughly chopped
- 1 celery stalk roughly chopped
- 8 oz cremini mushrooms roughly chopped
- 6 cloves garlic smashed
- 2 Tbsp olive oil plus more for serving
- 6 oz spicy Italian sausage casing removed if necessary
- 12 oz ground beef preferably 80/20
- 3 Tbsp tomato paste
- Kosher salt and pepper to taste
- ¼ tsp red pepper flakes more to taste
- 2 bay leaves
- ½ cup red wine
- 1 (28 oz) can whole peeled tomatoes hand crushed
- 1 cup beef broth homemade or store bought
- 2 parmesan rinds if you have them
- 1 small bunch of thyme tied together with twine
Ricotta Gnocchi
- 15 oz high quality whole milk ricotta cheese I love this one!
- ½ cup finely grated pecorino romano plus more for serving
- 2 eggs
- 1 tsp salt
- ¾ -1 ½ cups all purpose flour plus more for dusting
- Semolina flour for dusting
Instructions
- Begin by making the bolognese. Add onion, carrots, and celery to a food processor and pulse to a fine paste. Transfer to a bowl. Add mushrooms and garlic to a food processor and blend to a fine paste as well. Add to the bowl with the other veggies. Set aside.
- In a large pot, add olive oil and heat until hot. Add the sausage and ground beef and cook, without disturbing or moving the meat until it is brown on one side. Continue to cook, breaking up the meat until fully browned.
- Add in the vegetable mixture and cook stirring occasionally, until all the liquid in the vegetables reduces out and the mixture becomes dry. This will take about 10-15 minutes.
- Add in tomato paste, and cook for about 2 minutes.
- Season with salt and pepper. Add in red pepper flakes and bay leaves.
- Deglaze with red wine and cook for 1 minute. The wine won't really reduce here, more so just get absorbed by the tomato paste.
- Stir in the crushed tomatoes and broth. Add in parm rinds and thyme. Bring to a simmer, reduce to low and cover with a lid. Cook for at least 2 hours on low, or up to 4 hours. Uncover the pot halfway through the cooking. Right before serving, remove the bay leaves, thyme, and parm rinds and season with salt and pepper to taste.
- While the sauce cooks, prepare the gnocchi. In a large bowl, add ricotta, eggs, pecorino, and salt. Mix until combined.
- Add ¾ cup of flour to start and gently mix into the ricotta mixture. If needed, add 2-3 Tbsp more flour at a time until the mixture is sticky, but holds together when rolled gently between floured hands.*
- Using floured hands, form the mixture into a ball and cut into 8 equal pieces.
- On a floured surface, roll each piece into a 12 inch log. Cut logs into 1/2 inch pieces. **
- Transfer gnocchi to a sheet tray dusted with semolina flour. Repeat with all the dough.
- Transfer gnocchi to the fridge until you are ready to cook them off. ***
- Bring a large pot of water to a boil. Heavily season with salt.
- Drop gnocchi into boiling water (you can do this is batches if necessary), and cook until they float. Once floating, let simmer for about 1 minute more. Gently drain gnocchi. Drizzle with a touch of oil.
- Serve gnocchi topped with bolognese, olive oil, and grated pecorino romano.
Video
Notes
*Ricotta varies in moisture content so add flour in increments until the mixture holds together when rolled in your hands. It will be sticky but still “rollable”
**You can keep the gnocchi in this shape or you can add ridges with a fork or using a gnocchi board like I did in the video
***Gnocchi can be frozen at this point, spread out on a sheet tray. Once frozen they can be transferred to a bag and kept frozen. They can be cooked in the same manner as above from frozen
Tried this recipe?Let us know how it was!
SO FREAKIN DELICIOUS
So fun making gnocchi for the first time. Definitely not pretty but they taste delicious + I love that they just float when they’re done! 🙂
Best bolognese I have ever made! My son requests this regularly!
So so good! The best bolognese I’ve ever had.
My bf is gluten free, so I made the gnocchi with bobs red mill all purpose. It took a Lot more flour than the recipe calls for, but it did work. I’m sure it’s not as good as with regular flour, but it can be done with GF flour.