Although spinach gnudi — soft, pillowy cheese dumplings fried in browned butter and sage — are traditionally more of a spring or summer food, I’m here to make the argument we should eat them right now, in prime soup-and-sweater weather. Because did you hear the part about warm cheese? the puddle of brown butter? the earthy sage? It’s a symphony of delicious fall things and if you tell me you don’t want to curl up on the plate and take a nap in it, fine, I’ll believe you but I do think you’re in denial.
Gnudi literally means “naked” in Italian — consider them spinach and ricotta ravioli without the pasta wrapper. I think they’re better in every way because you get all of the soft, cheesy filling, none of the pasta fuss that can feel leaden together. Typically, gnudi are made with fresh greens that have been blanched and finely chopped but I’ve been on a mission over the last year to give frozen spinach (reliable! economical! seasonless!) more love, especially when all I’d planned to do with the fresh stuff was cook it down and feel bereft when it vanished. Frozen spinach saves me this heartache, and here we’re using a whole box, saving us a math headache too.
From there, it’s just a few simple steps to make — mix with ricotta, parmesan, an egg, seasoning, and a small enough amount of flour that I bet a gluten-free flour would work as swap — form into balls, boil them briefly until they float like marbled green clouds, and brown them in a skillet with butter and sage. The result is decadent and cozy and while I briefly considered arguing that they’re not nearly as heavy as you’d expect from, you know, cheese fried in butter (they’re not!) I’ll say instead that they’re the exactly correct level, which is to say effectively warming and delicious but not sleep-inducing (you know, unless you cave on that nap offer).
Looking to stretch it into more of a meal? You could add hearty bread, a simple soup, or a roasted fall salad.
P.S. Don’t miss the recipe for toasted ricotta gnocchi with pistachio pesto in my third cookbook, Smitten Kitchen Keepers. They’re spinach-free and pan-fried only and they become essentially burnished cheese nuggets, then tossed with an arugula and pistachio sauce, brightening everything.
Video
Spinach and Ricotta Gnudi
- 1 package (10-ounce or 283-gram) frozen chopped spinach, thawed
- 1 cup (215 grams) whole-milk ricotta
- 1 large egg
- 1/2 cup (50 grams) grated parmesan cheese, plus more to serve
- A pinch of freshly grated nutmeg (optional)
- 1 teaspoon kosher salt
- Freshly ground black pepper
- 1/3 cup (45 grams) all-purpose flour
- A few fresh sage leaves
- 4 tablespoons (55 grams) salted butter, plus more if needed
On a cutting board, finely chop the wrung-out spinach. Transfer to a bowl and add ricotta, egg, 1/2 cup parmesan, nutmeg (if using), salt, pepper, and flour. Stir to combine. The mixture should be thick. Scoop into 1.5-tablespoon-sized balls (I’m using a #40 scoop) and arrange on a plate or tray.
Boil the gnudi: Bring a medium pot of salted water to a gentle boil. Adding a few at a time so it’s not too crowded, simmer the gnudi until they float to the surface, about 3 minutes. Remove from water with a slotted spoon and transfer back to the plate or platter. Repeat with remaining gnudi.
Brown in butter: In a large skillet, melt butter over medium heat. Once sizzling, add sage leaves and as many gnudi as fit without too much crowding. Once browned underneath, gently turn to brown them on the other side. Transfer to serving plate and repeat with remaining dumplings. Remove sage leaves once they’re crisp. If needed, add additional butter, 1 tablespoon at a time.
To serve: Pour any leftover butter in the skillet over the gnudi, and finish with additional freshly cracked black pepper and a shower of parmesan. Eat right away.
Additional Tips:
I hope this leads to a 100% success rate for everyone going forward!
Previously
6 months ago: Charred Salt and Vinegar Cabbage
1 year ago: Roasted Carrots with Lentils and Yogurt
2 years ago: Chicken Rice with Buttered Onions
3 years ago: Focaccia Onion Board
4 years ago: Big Apple Crumb Cake
5 years ago: Whole Wheat Chocolate Oat Cookies and Simple Cauliflower Tacos
6 years ago: Chickpea and Kale Shakshuka
7 years ago: Crispy Spinach Pizza
8 years ago: Pizza Beans and Chocolate Tahini Challah Buns
9 years ago: Homemade Merguez with Herby Yogurt and Magic Apple Plum Cobbler
10 years ago: The Perfect Manhattan, Broccoli Cheddar Soup and S’more Cupcakes
11 years ago: Latke Waffles and The Crispy Egg
12 years ago: Frico Grilled Cheese Sandwiches
13 years ago: Crackly Banana Bread and Spaghetti with Broccoli Cream Pesto
14 years ago: Apple Pie Cookies
15 years ago: Single-Crust Apple and Plum Pie
16 years ago: Date Spice Loaf and Lebanese-Style Stuffed Eggplant
17 years ago: Summer’s Last Hurrah Panzanella, Sweet and Sour Glazed Cippoline, Majestic and Moist Honey Cake, and Best Challah (Egg Bread)
18 years ago: Red Velvet Cake, Noodle Kugel, Spaghetti Fideos with Chorizo and Almonds and Couscous and Feta-Stuffed Peppers
19 years ago: Acorn Squash with Chile-Lime Vinaigrette
I can’t WAIT to make these! I’m already making gnocchi tonight or I’d go grab the ingredients. I wonder if I could use the fresh Swiss chard from my garden? Thanks for another great recipe!
Yes, just use 10 ounces of leaves.
I have made a version of these for decades – can’t wait to try them. I love this with with pasta and red sauce if you’re looking for a different way to eat them. Like meatballs except very much their own thing!
I made these tonight! They were absolutely delicious – I needed a total of about 7T of butter for pan frying – great way to use up Swiss chard and sage from my garden!
This looks delish! Very excited to make this for me and my boyfriend. How would you reheat leftovers?
They actually reheat great — in a pan or even, gasp, a microwave.
These look fabulous and I cannot wait to make them. A thought: Any time I need to wring the water out of cooked spinach I squeeze it in my ricer. It doesn’t go through the holes and makes it really dry without much effort.
I do this too, especially when trying to preserve a garden full of blanched spinach for the freezer. The potato ricer is the very best tool for getting moisture out of a lot of things!
I never thought to use it to get the moisture out of anything else. Thanks for the tip.
Chrissys, thanks for this great tip! I tried these last night and they’re delicious!
Oh. My. God. I feel like one could open a restaurant and serve these and only these and draw a huge crowd. So delicious. I didn’t have sage so used fresh rosemary but otherwise didn’t change a thing. Will have guests over for this next time.
Can I prep these ahead through the water?
Yes.
Am I crazy to want to add a small cube of feta to the middle of these?
Can these be frozen?
I haven’t frozen them before but I think they’d freeze fine. Maybe before browning them? And then you could brown them when you defrost them, to rewarm them.
Thanks for another great/ I cannot wait to try recipe! Could you make the brown butter/ frying part in the oven on a cookie sheet??
It might work but will probably take a little longer.
I will try it this week end!!!!!!!!!!!! thanks! you are my cooking hero!
@Sandra, can you let us know how the sheet pan works for you? I’m thinking that’s ideal for a party! Thank you
@Mary,
I made them last nigth! So I put the oven at 400 deg F.. Put the butter on a rimed cookie sheet (big one), had it melt in the oven for around 3 minutes. Then took the sheet out of the oven, added the sage leaves and the gnudi (all of them, I had 16, but slightly more grams of all ingredients). I let in the oven for around 15 minutes, I flipped the gnudi once at half time (maybe two flippings would have been better). It was delicious!!
I was once served gnudi on plate with a beet coulis. Stunning and delicious, made with spinach, it has a holiday theme.
Looks wonderful! I’m thinking about making them with my Dolce’ electric Ebelsikver maker.
I have a whole bag of fresh spinach from the farmers market. Any idea how much fresh spinach would work? Or does that defeat the purpose of not having to math it out :)
I generally find that 1 pound of fresh spinach with stems (you’ll just use the leaves) = 10 ounces frozen but it’s not an exact exchange.
Thank you Deb!
Taste: 1000000000000/10 SOOOO good!
Texture: Amazing, except I had a few casualties. I lost about 2 gnudi to the boiling process, and then during the pan fry at least another 2 disintegrated… I don’t know if maybe my ricotta was too wet? I squeezed every drop of liquid from the spinach, but maybe I didn’t chop it finely enough? Maybe I didn’t roll the balls tight enough?
Whatever the reason, I’m going to have to figure it out, because even eating the bits that looked like weird spinach slop, it tasted AMAZING. The texture of the surviving gnudi was velvety and decadent without being over the top heavy. Perfect October meal!
H Deb,
Do you think cottage cheese could be swapped for at least some of the ricotta to add protein to this dish? Thanks!
Maybe if drained well and very small curd.
You can blend cottage cheese into a decent ricotta substitute (at least this works for lasagna. I cannot vouch for it here)
this tasted divine but looked a sorry mess. I should have know that anything containing spinach and requiring to keep its form does not work when I make it.
Maybe the spinach needed even more draining or even the ricotta (like in the heavenly gnocchi w pistacchio pesto)?
These look delicious and the perfect weekend comfort food. It’s good to see they can be reheated as I can make a lovely batch up.
I followed this recipe to the letter and even weighed the ingredients out. The gnudi came together nicely. I kept them compact because I was afraid they might fall apart, but even with that precaution, the first 3 fell apart in the gently boiling water. Just disintegrated. What a mess! However, what seemed to help and save dinner was freezing the rest for 20 minutes before putting the second group in the boiling water. They still did not hold their shape perfectly, and were fussy to brown in butter, but they were quite tasty. I wish I knew what went wrong because the recipe has such promise. But I would not do this one again. :(
Same! I felt like I got as much of the water out of the spinach as possible, but all of the balls disintegrated once they were in the water. You’re not alone, I’m glad that some of yours worked out!
Mine also disintegrated in the water. Freezing didn’t help. I ended up just frying some of them, and they didn’t hold together so well. My first abject failure with an SK recipe, I think.
Then I realized I had forgotten the flour. I still have a few frozen, so I think I will thaw and squish, add some flour, re-roll them, and try again.
I eyeballed the flour and re-rolled what I had left. I also coated them in a little more flour, and kept the water at a *very* gentle boil. Much better! Really delicious.
Ah, I wonder if it’s the boiling — maybe too vigorous? You can see the the video that mine is definitely going into boiling water, but it’s a gentle boil. A simmer will work too.
I’m wondering if the ricotta was the culprit; mine is quite thick.
My ricotta was very thick, almost like paste. But it mixed in well with the spinach. The balls held together well until they were put into water.
Should I make any alterations if I use nondairy ricotta?
I have loved every recipe I’ve made from this site, but this one was an epic fail! I followed the recipe exactly as written, and the dumplings completely disintegrated in the boiling water. I literally had a pot full of chopped spinach and liquefied cheese. To try to salvage the expensive ingredients, I added eggs and attempted to turn it into a quiche. I’m not sure what went wrong, but this one was a big waste of time and money for me.
Would you say your ricotta was on the wetter side? I’m using a pretty thick one with almost invisible curds, which helps.
I used a thick, organic, whole milk ricotta so it did not seem watery at all!
My first batch disintegrated in the boiling water so I split the remaining ones in half and just pan fried them. Still messy but great flavour.
These were delish! We added some sautéed chantrelles for even more fall tastiness. For those that had trouble with them falling apart I both froze them for about 20 mins and reduced to a slow boil and they stayed together. Enjoy!
I made these last night and they were delicious, but required some changes to be successful. I made them as written, but the first few I popped into the water completely dissolved (as noted by others). After this, I had to add a lot more flour (like maybe 2 or 3x what the original recipe called for) until it resembled more of a craggy dough. I was then able to boil without them falling apart. These resulted in what I imagine was a more dense dumpling than intended, but we enjoyed them. I thought I squeezed all the possible water out of my spinach, but I’ll try even harder next time. I may also drain the liquid off my ricotta and try freezing the doughballs before boiling to try and get that pillowy softness Deb describes.
Do you think I could substitute fresh Swiss chard? I have an abundance!
Yes!
Ok I have been making these for AGES (I am italian, living in Italy) so I f I may, I’ll add my two cents to the conversation :)
You can make them with just 3 ingredients: spinach, ricotta and parmesan. Eyeball the quantities: same amout of spinach (once drained) and ricotta.
You need to really really really squeeze the spinach as dry as possible, and not chop them too much (the strands help keeping them together).
Once formed, I roll them in flour, and boil them in the GENTLEST simmering salted water.
No browining, just put them in one layer in a large dish and pour over them brown butter and sage, and shower them with parmensan. If needed, they can be kept warm in a low oven (we do this if there is a big crowd as this is typically served at Easter in Tuscany), and in this case the parmesan might create a little crust.
The outside layer of flour is slighlty firmer, and the inside is super soft.
They are a bit delicate to handle but so, so satisfying!
I’m glad to see that you all seem to enjoy them!
Mine simply fell apart, albeit slowly, in the lightly simmering water. I tried most of the suggestions above: squeezing spinach ultra-dry, not chopping it too finely, draining the ricotta, chilling the balls, extra flour. Oh well; this doesn’t happen often with Deb’s recipes.
More…if I owned an air fryer, that’s what I would try, pouring the sage butter over after cooked.
Did you get the spinach very finely chopped? I wonder if that’s a culprit. Sometimes defrosted spinach can be pesky to mince.
I didn’t try to finely chop, since another cook here suggested the spinach shouldn’t be minced too finely, and wrote that the stringy stuff helps the ball stick together. My water was simmering lightly, and i could watch the balls dissolve from the outside in…a fleck of spinach at a time.
So delicious! I made these tonight and my husband was a big fan! My ricotta was very fresh and watery and my spinach was fresh so I had to up the flour by a significant amount for them not to disintegrate during the boiling process. But it worked and none were lost!
Mine held together ok in the water, but fell apart in the butter. Everything brown stuck to the bottom of the pan and they were too soft to turn. I used your homemade ricotta (I always do!) so based on other comments, maybe too wet? We ended up just spreading it on toast and honestly it was delicious.
I also had the fall apart issue. Under time pressure, I ended up pan cooking the whole mess like scrambled eggs to cook the flour and egg, and the texture was funky but everything was delicious. With a little more time and the same mixture in the future, I might try frying it like a pancake / fritter rather than trying to get it to boil in a ball first.
Amateur cook here. Im just curious as to what the boiling does? Didnt we just try to get all the water out of the spinach? Excited to try and make this!!
It helps it set up — otherwise it’s a ball of dough, more or less.
I made these for dinner tonight! I made a few modifications based on previous helpful comments. I upped the flour to 75 grams, added dried rosemary and crushed/dried sage (my grocery store doesn’t have fresh sage) into the dough as well as into the butter when frying. It smelled (and tasted) awesome while pan frying! I also froze the dough balls on parchment lined baking sheets for 30-45 mins before boiling in a baaaaaarely simmering pot of salted water (3 mins for every set of 3-5 dough balls), and I’m happy to say they generally held their shape, though small bits were floating off into the water the whole time. Delicious, filling, and simple. I’m telling myself that the health benefits of the spinach outweigh the ridiculous amount of butter I just ate ;) Hope this helps someone else!
Forgot to add: I also added one extra egg yolk to the dough. :)
Epic fail. In the immortal words of “A Christmas Story”, we are going OUT to eat. The first ones disintegrated the minute they hit the water. Added 2x the flour, tried again. Disintegrated. These looked amazing, but unlike most recipes on this site, the recipe doesn’t work, even when followed to the letter.
I live in a large city, but like most people across North America, I don’t have access to high quality ricotta. Maybe that is the difference?
I’m so excited to try these, but the many comments about the gnudi falling apart when boiling made me nervous…. I did some googling and found some tips (I haven’t tested yet though!):
Tip 1: The most common tip seems to be that the gnudi need to “rest” and develop a surface skin, before boiling. The resting period varies from 20 minutes, to up to three days in the fridge, depending on the recipe. Some recipes roll in semolina or regular flour to encourage the surface skin/crust.
Tip 2: Typical US grocery store ricotta is too wet and this will cause the gnudi to fall apart during the boiling step. Either buy fancy, thick ricotta, or try draining/pressing the ricotta first.
Tip 3: The boil needs to be really “gentle”, as already noted in the recipe. Just barely simmering seems to be key.
Another vote for epic fail. And unfortunately we’re a long way from a back-up restaurant, and there’s too many expensive ingredients to not eat it. We added the floating bits of cheese and spinach to squash soup and had cheesy spinach butternut squash soup.
Well, we had In N Out for dinner. I’m a Smitten fanatic and was very surprised by just how bad this failed for me. Squeezed every drop out of the spinach, drained ricotta a bit, even froze them for 30 min. Now I did have to substitute gluten free flour for my celiac kiddo, and that could certainly have contributed to the pasty texture. If I smashed the boiled dumplings very flat in the brown butter and fried them crisp, they were ok ish, but not something I could have everyone make a meal out of. So sad, cause it sounds like the perfect dinner!!
After reading all the comments (and needing dinner) I decided to steam them (I have a silicone steamer which was helpful in scooping them whole) and in my opinion they were delicious. I skipped the browning them in butter in favor of setting them red sauce. Really enjoyed them – cozy yet light. Thank you Deb for giving us so much inspiration.
I don’t usually comment, but I felt like I had to provide a contrast to all the boiling gnudi fails in the comments. I made the recipe as written with TJ’s frozen spinach and whole milk ricotta. I forgot to defrost the spinach until an hour or so before cooking, so I measured it out and popped it in the oven for 1-2 min. Wrung out all the water (there was a lot!) and had 3-4 flat patties of spinach by the end of it. I didn’t chop the spinach because it was already in small pieces, and just mixed everything right in. I rolled out the balls like you would cookie dough (between the palms of my hands, pressing a little to get them round) and popped them in a large pot of boiling water. All of them were fine, there were a few bits of ricotta and spinach here or there and the water became cloudy, but all of them were intact.
My issues came with the pan frying – the first couple did great, but after that, they all stuck to the pan. I could tell water was being released and mixing in with the butter – maybe I should have patted them dry beforehand? Not sure. Other than that, they were delicious, very cheesy. We ate it with plain pasta.
Friends: I’ve just added four additional tips that I hope will help avoid the falling apart issue some are reporting in the comments. Check them out at the end of the recipe. I hope this leads to a 100% success rate going forward for everyone!
Ok, so EPIC fail on the boiling part. My first three lovely little balls of hope fell apart in the water. I blame the use of fat-free ricotta (because of course the grocery store only had full-fat in 4-cup tubs, and ain’t nobody got time for running to multiple stores. Anyway…). So I baked the rest of the gnudi on a silicone baking mat at 400 for 20 minutes (probably drop the baking time a bit next go). I then did the browned butter and sage and HOLY COW THESE ARE AMAZING. I’m sure I the gnudi would be much softer if I could have boiled them, DANG I AM SO EXCITED. I love spinach ravioli, but making pasta isn’t going to happen. This is a perfect substitution, and healthier since I can control the salt and fat. Thank you Deb, for giving me another recipe to add to my regular rotation!!! (Chef’s kiss).
I made these last night—despite all the reports of “fail” (which were very helpful). Success! Three things: control for dryer spinach, dryer ricotta, and chill after dough comes together and again after forming balls.
I stuck to the recipe, though our frozen spinach packets are 300g in Canada. I made my own ricotta, not because I’m extra but because The Smitten Kitchen recipe rocks; (it made 300g after a really good hang the day before and overnight in the fridge; worth it because I only needed 215g for this recipe so the rest was bonus; not soppy, just perfect.
I made sure the spinach was as dry as possible/reasonable (pressed against the sides of a large colander, walked away for a while, pressed again, pushed paper towels around the sides, and bingo.
Otherwise, I put flour on my hands to shape the balls (no cookie dough scoop: the mix has to be dry enough to roll by hand and I didn’t want to add extra flour to the dough). I also rolled the balls in semolina (an idea borrowed from elsewhere). And then chilling (twice). I think that’s the trick, push the dough together, put in the fridge to chill, form balls, put back in the fridge and let them sit awhile. If/when I make again, I would do them ahead, roll again in semolina, and def do the butter/sage thing.