Squash Ricotta Gnocchi: A First Dish For Thanksgiving

Photo: Patricia Turo

Ingredients

Dry Ingredients

4 cups flour, sifted

1/2 cup grated Parmesan cheese

of salt

Wet Ingredients

2 pounds ricotta

2 eggs

1/2 cup squash, mashed (frozen, canned or fresh squash or

Sage& Pignoli Sauce

12 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil

6 tablespoons of butter

1/2 cup pine nuts

Several leaves of fresh sage

Salt to taste

Preparation

Place the ricotta on a board or in a large bowl and add the squash. Add grated cheese and taste to determine if more salt is needed. Over-salt it as the salt is released into the water when cooking. However, you can’t remove salt if you have too much; add a little at a time and taste. Put the eggs in the middle of the ricotta, then begin to mix adding only enough flour as needed to form the dough into a ball.

Cut off a piece of dough and make tube shaped rolls about 1/2’ thick and as long as you want. Cut them about 1/2” long. At this point, press each gnocchi over the back of a fork pressing your thumb in the middle as you roll it down the folk. This will form the grooves down the gnocchi. This step is optional. You can cu t 1/2” pieces and eliminate rolling them over a folk.

In a deep pan, boil salted water and cook the fettuccini. If the pasta is boxed, cook according to directions. If the pasta is fresh, it will take less than 3 minutes to cook.

Note: You may need additional flour as the ricotta or squash could have more liquid. Also keep about 1/2 cup of flour for rolling out the gnocchi.

While the water is heating up, prepare the sauce.

In a saucepan, melt the butter and the oil. Cut the sage leaves lengthwise and place them in the saucepan along with the pine nuts. Sauté them in the butter and oil. Watch the pine nuts very carefully as they will brown very quickly. Remove them from the stove as soon as they start to turn golden brown and allow them to finish browning in the hot butter. Toss the gnocchi in the sauce and serve.