This is a tasty vegetarian meal and apparently much easier to make than potato gnocchi which I have yet to try. Fortunately ricotta cheese is getting much easier to find in Istanbul these days and my local supermarket is currently offering 150g of Turkish made ricotta for 1 lira (less than 50p). I basically used the recipe on Simply Recipes.com but instead of Parmesan cheese that costs an arm and a leg here, I just used local yellow cheese grated on the fine side of the grater.
Ingredients for Gnocchi
300 g ricotta cheese
1/2 cup/80g grated parmesan or hard cheese
about 10 medium size spinach leaves
1 cup/125g all purpose flour
1/2 tsp salt
1 beaten egg
If the ricotta has any liquid, drain. Wilt the spinach for about a minute in boiling water, the drain and squeeze ALL the water out. Chop. Add spinach to ricotta, parmesan, egg, salt and mix thoroughly, gradually add the flour, you may not need it all. When you have a dough that you can handle, stop mixing in flour.
Put the dough on a floured surface and cut into four, roll each portion out into a long sausage using the flat of your hands. Cut into 2cm lengths on an angle. Place in the refrigerator until firmed up. I left mine for a couple of hours but half an hour is probably enough.
Boil a large pot of salted water, when gnocchi is chilled roll each one in a little flour then put in the pot. After a couple of minutes they should rise to the surface, drain and serve with tomato sauce.
Ingredients for tomato sauce
1 tin of tomatoes
1 large garlic clove
a little oil
salt
pepper
thyme or oregano
This sauce is blissfully easy. Chop the garlic. Heat the oil and fry the garlic slightly. Puree the tomatoes either in a food processor or through a sieve. Add to the garlic. Add salt and pepper and herbs. Stir until bubbling and a little reduced.
