Ricotta gnocchi dumplings with Italian tomato sauce

The second thing I did with the ricotta was these ricotta dumplings, one way to get some calcium too :)
The other I did was those ricotta hotcakes I posted the other day.
Anyway this is the recipe for you all, enjoy!


Ingredients for Gnocchi
500g ricotta cheese
1 egg
Juice of half a lemon
2 tbsp chopped basil
2 cups of spelt flour approx or gluten free flour plus extra
Salt and pepper

Method

Mix together the ricotta, egg, lemon and basil and 1 cup of the flour. Keep adding more flour until you get a dough consistency. Knead only until it comes together, you don’t want to over work it or it will toughen. Add extra flour as needed. Roll as traditional gnocchi or you can roll into tbsp. sized balls (this takes less time). The littles ones take a little less time to cook.

Ingredients for Sauce
3 large kumatos (or normal ones) this is about 400g, 1 cm dice
1 brown onion, diced
2 carrots, small dice
3 stalks of celery, small dice
4 cloves of garlic, crushed
2 tbsp red wine vinegar
1 cup of vegetable stock- you could use chicken stock
2 tbsp tomato paste (the thick concentrated one)
2 tsp sugar
2 tbsp chopped basil (you can use more if you want)

Method

Fill a large pot of salted water for your gnocchi.

In a large pan heat a little oil and fry off the onion, garlic, carrots and celery for 2 minutes, then add in vinegar, stock, tomato paste, kumatos and simmer for 10-15 minutes or until it has thicken to form a sauce for your gnocchi. Then add the sugar and the basil. Stir through.

While that is simmering away you can cook off your gnocchi’s in the boiling water, you can do half the gnocchi at one time. Put the gnocchi’s in gently and cook until they float up to the top, then scoop out with a slotted spoon out and place in your sauce to keep warm. Then cook the other half. Check the first one to make sure it’s cooked through and not doughy in the middle. 

Then serve up with parmesan cheese and steamed veg on the side.