Gnocchetti di Ricotta (Jewish Food Recipe)

Ricotta Fritters

No, these are not pasta but bite-sized fritters and they will very, very likely become one of the things you make that your friends talk about. (‘Gnocco’, just means ‘lump’, in Italian, the reason the word is used to mean so many different, vaguely shaped foods). Like most fried things, these are best consumed right away and in fact, they are great dinner party icebreakers, to be eaten standing up around the stove, a glass of cold Etna Bianco in hand.

  • Best ricotta. As fresh as possible.
  • Hard grating cheese
  • Supermarket olive oil
  • Cake flour
  • Eggs
  • Salt
  • Optional: Lemon zest
  • Optional: truffle products

Eyeball the flour-to-ricotta mixture, adding about 5% flour to mass of the ricotta. Grate in as much hard cheese as you like, compensating with less salt if you add more cheese. Crack in an egg for every three or four portions. Taste it to see if it’s good. If you’re squeamish about the raw egg, fry off one to check the seasoning. Make them a little saltier, as that will make people drink more earlier in the night, putting everyone at ease.

Fill a sautè pan with a thumb height of supermarket olive oil and when it starts to swell and smell hot, drop in little dollops of the mixture into the oil that they are mostly submerged. (You can use spoons to make quenelles if you’re feeling fancy).

Give them a minute or two or until they start to brown and flip them. Remove them from the oil when you are satisfied and grate lemon (if using) or truffles (truffle sale, truffle oil, truffles themselves, etc.) if using.

Serve immediately, having a partner pass them. The second batch will likely cook faster that the first so either move the pan from the heat to allow to cool for a few seconds or load the pan again as soon as possible.

Any acid white wine would love this.