This recipe comes from Bon Appetite. I had never had or heard of ricotta dumplings but the picture looked delicious and I love to try cooking new things. The simple dumplings are made of ricotta, eggs, cheese, flour and salt. They are served with asparagus and garlic in a chicken broth and topped with chives and parmesan. These were excellent and I will make this recipe again.
I didn’t have green garlic for this recipe so subbed standard garlic cloves. There is one step you need to do early in the day or the day before you make this recipe. The ricotta has to be pressed so that it is crumbly and most of the water is removed. I could not find already pressed ricotta so I had to do this step myself.
Since this is a very simple recipe, all of the components need to be there, so I had to sub a few things I couldn’t find. I did manage to find the grana padano cheese it uses, although I think you could use parm instead if you can’t. As I mentioned I subbed garlic for green garlic. It also calls for fresh chives, which I think make a lot of impact here, so I included those.
This recipe is very light, so probably needs to be served with another dish. I made a tasty salad (will share that recipe soon) to go along with it.
Ricotta Dumplings with Asparagus and Garlic
Ingredients
For the dumplings:
- 2 cups whole milk ricotta
- 1 cup finely grated grana padano
- 1 large egg room temp
- 1 large egg yolk room temp
- 2 1/4 tsp kosher salt
- 1/4 cup flour plus more if needed
For the asparagus:
- 8 oz asparagus trimmed and cut into 1 inch pieces
- 2 cups chicken stock
- 4 garlic cloves thinly sliced
- 3 tbsp unsalted butter cut in pieces
- 2 tbsp chopped chives
- 2 tsp lemon juice
- salt and pepper
- olive oil
Instructions
For the dumplings:
- Check the wetness of the ricotta before preparing dumplings. If the ricotta is sold in an individual drained basket, then all you need to do is pat dry and adjust the quantity to 1½ cups. For ricotta that’s not drained, you’ll need to press it to drain any excess liquid. Line a colander with cheesecloth and set inside a large bowl (to catch the liquid draining from the ricotta). Spoon ricotta onto cheesecloth and put a paper towel on top. Weigh ricotta down using cans or other heavy pantry items; chill for at least 4 hours and up to 24. The ricotta should be dry and crumbly. Measure out 1½ cups.
- Pulse ricotta, Grana Padano, egg, egg yolk, and salt in a food processor just until smooth. Sprinkle flour over ricotta mixture and pulse again until just combined. Transfer dumpling batter to a medium bowl.
- Dust a parchment-lined rimmed baking sheet generously with flour. Using a metal spoon, scoop out 2–3 tsp. dumpling batter and scrape spoon against side of bowl at a 45° angle to smooth batter. Using your finger tip, push batter off spoon and let drop onto baking sheet (this may take a few tries). The dumpling will slightly curve at each ends. Dust tops with more flour. (You should have about 65 dumplings.)
For the asparagus and assembly:
- Bring a large pot of lightly salted water to a boil. Add asparagus and cook until almost tender, 2–3 minutes. Transfer to a bowl of ice water; drain and pat dry. Reserve pot.
- Meanwhile, bring chicken stock to a simmer in a large skillet over medium heat.
- Return pot of water to a gentle simmer and add dumplings (one by one so they don’t crush each other), stirring occasionally, until they’re almost double in size and cooked through and tender, about 4 minutes (dumplings will quickly float to surface).
- Transfer dumplings to pan; add butter and garlic. Cook, tossing often, until sauce has thickened and garlic has slightly softened, about 3 minutes. Add asparagus, chives, and lemon juice and toss to warm asparagus; season with salt and pepper. Serve dumplings with more cheese and drizzle with olive oil.