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It’s raining. The perfect excuse to stay inside and make pasta and bake bread. Or, rather, me bake bread and Victor make pasta. You go with your strengths. Victor makes the best pasta this side of Napoli – and I’ve made more than two loaves of bread in my day.

Victor decided we should have gnocchi for dinner – and we should invite his brother over, as well. He called his sister and asked her if she wanted to spend four hours in the car driving in the pouring rain for Sunday Dinner, but she graciously declined.

Oh, well.

Victor really is the pasta king of the household. He has his pasta doughs down to a science. He decided to make a ricotta gnocchi from La Cucina or one of the magazines around the house. It’s a new spin on an old favorite and it looked as if it would be even lighter than a potato gnocchi. We’ve had some store-bought ones that are real belly bombs!

These were light as a feather. Just perfect.

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Ricotta Gnocchi

  • 1 (8 ounce) container ricotta cheese
  • 2 eggs
  • 1/2 cup freshly grated Parmesan cheese
  • 1 tsp salt
  • 1 tsp pepper
  • 1 tsp garlic powder
  • 1 cup “00” flour (or all-purpose)

Stir together the ricotta cheese, eggs, Parmesan Cheese, salt, pepper, and garlic powder in a large bowl until blended. Mix in 1 cup of flour. Add additional flour if needed to form a soft dough.

On a floured board, roll pieces of dough into 1/2-inch-thick ropes. Cut each rope into 1-inch pieces, and place on a lightly floured baking sheet

Drop into a large pot of gently-boiling water and cook until they float to the surface – about 2-3 minutes.

Drain and serve with your favorite sauce.

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Our favorite sauce came out of a jar – that we filled in the first place. Victor added basil and cheese sausages to the sauce for a bit of extra flavor.

The gnocchi really were light – and had a lot of flavor to boot. The full teaspoon of black pepper really enhanced them – as did the fresh cheese. A totally successful dish.

Marie made biscotti and sesame cookies, so afterwards, we sat around drinking coffee and eating cookies. The perfect ending to a great meal with great company.

What a rough life we lead!