Gnudi with Fresh Cherry Tomato Sauce

So here is another wonderful recipe to use up some of my cherry tomatoes. I was watching The Cooking Channel and they were in Florence and a chef there made this recipe. And how I just love Italian food. Ask anyone. And I think I am pretty good at it too. So when I saw they were making gnudi and using a cherry tomato sauce I rewound the channel to get a better look at the meal. And after taking some notes on what it looked like and what they said was in it I made it tonight. But just in case you are not familiar with gnudi I will enlighten you. Gnudi is a dumpling very similiar to gnocchi but made with ricotta instead of potato. So if you are a fan of gnocchi then you will most likely like gnudi. So without further ado......

Gnudi Recipe:
1 small carton ricotta cheese
1/2c chopped spinach
3 cloves garlic, minced
1/4c grated parmesan
salt and pepper


In a small skillet add some olive oil over medium heat. Add garlic and saute for 30 seconds. Add spinach and saute until cooked through. Let it cool down.

In a medium bowl combine together cheese, spinach mixture, parmesan, salt, and pepper.

Take a generous amount of olive oil and rub it all over your hands, kind of like you are washing them in olive oil. And take small amounts of ricotta mixture and roll into balls. The size really depends on you and how you want to make yours. Mine were roughly the size of golf balls today.

Tomato Sauce:
1 pint cherry tomatoes, quartered
4 garlic cloves, minced
1/4c basil, sliced
salt and pepper
olive oil

In a medium pot add some olive oil and heat over medium heat. Add the garlic and saute for 30 seconds. Add in tomatoes, basil, salt, and pepper. Bring to a simmer and keep at low heat for 20-30 minutes or until tomatoes release their juices and are cooked down.



To assemble this gnudi dish take 4-5 small oven proof dishes ( I used mini quiche and mini loaf pans) and place on a baking sheet. Preheat oven to 300 degrees. Place a small spoonful of tomato sauce into the bottom of the dish. Place 2-4 gnudi (or more if you made smaller balls than me) on top of the tomato sauce. Place another 1-2 spoonfuls of sauce onto gnudi. Sprinkle on a generous helping of parmesan cheese.

Place in the oven and bake for 15 minutes. Now while this is what the tv said I had to crank up my oven to 375 degrees after leaving it in the oven for 30 minutes on 300. I wanted the juices to be bubbling before taking it out and the parmesan to be golden in color. So I cranked up the oven and maybe at a higher temperature it wouldve only taken 10 minutes. So watch your oven and your times because they may need to be adjusted accordingly.

This dish was very good. And for a dish that I make it was very easy to make. I got to use up another pint of fresh cherry tomatoes from my garden and that was my biggest thing. So this dish is another keeper. I think the sweetess of my tomatoes cuppled with the cooking of them brought out a lovely sweet acidic flavor that brought the whole dish together in a very lovely manner. So try this dish! You wont regret it!!