Gnocchi Verde (Spinach and Ricotta Dumplings) Recipe on Food52 (2024)

Can the dumplings be frozen? Cooked or uncooked?

These were fantastic. I used 21 ounces of baby spinach (a one pound package + a 5 ounce package). I boiled water and then turned it off an added the spinach for 2-3 minutes. I strained it in a colander, pressing it multiple times with a spoon and then wrung it out completely in a flour sack towel. I strained ricotta in a coffee filter. The filter was wet but a had minimal leakage. Everything else was measured and followed as indicated by the recipe. I did use gf flour and refrigerated them for an hour. Mine held together beautifully. Do not boil them. Simmer them at a low(ish) temp. The only thing I’d change next time is not to use 4 T butter when sautéing the spinach. I think olive oil here would have been fine. Too much butter for my waistline.

These are absolutely delicious. I love the recipes from the Time-Life cookbooks.

They were perfect!

I made the gnocchi twice - the first time they came out perfect and I gave them five stars in my recipe program. The second time they quickly desintegrated in the water, and were a complete loss. I made them both times exactly the same way, squeezed the water from the spinach, cooked them in very gently simmering water.
Being completely baffled, I came up with the only difference: the brand of ricotta I used. The ricotta I used the second time must have contained more water. In another recipe for ricotta gnocchi I found the urgent advice to DRAIN the ricotta in a milk cloth lined strainer for several hours (or overnight) before using - otherwise they would fall apart!

These were fantastic. Chilled for 50 minutes; cooked as directed in simmering water, and they held together great. Then followed the treatment suggested by a similar NYT recipe (which is how I found this one: https://cooking.nytimes.com/recipes/1020204-ricotta-dumplings-with-buttered-peas-and-asparagus), and tossed these with zucchini & halved cherry tomatoes sautéed in butter, and basil & extra Parmesan (no broiling though). Totally delicious; I'll do this again next time my no-dairy husband is out of town! 😉

I did look at all the comments before I made this dish and so took the precaution of steaming the dumplings rather than boiling them. I figured it would be just as simple and I'd save myself the frustration of having them fall apart. The results were excellent. I did notice that there was some discussion about the spinach and how to remove all the moisture. One person put the spinach in a colander and pressed it with a spoon. Some suggested a salad spinner. I dry greens a lot for various recipes and use this same method when making nut milks. I used two 10 oz. packages of frozen spinach. I lined a colander with a clean kitchen cloth and allowed the spinach to defrost fully. Then I gathered the thing up and squeeeeeeeeezed it out twisting and twisting until I had a tight ball of insanely dry previously frozen spinach. When you put it in the pan there is no liquid left to evaporate. I'm sorry if I'm preaching to the choir but ya never know so I shared.

I followed Sing's example and steamed the gnocchi instead of attempting to boil them. I used my bamboo steamer, and they came out delicious!

My test dumpling fell apart pretty much as soon as it hit the water--I probably didn't chill the dough enough. Or there was too much moisture in the greens. Or subbing kale for spinach doesn't work. Or...there are a million variables. In any case, I steamed the remaining dumplings, and it worked perfectly.

Juan July 20, 2017

I've made the recipe and it went perfectly well.
If you had any problem with the recipe is because you did something wrong. I think that maybe the key is being patience enough to wait all the moisture of the spinach to dry.
The proportions of the ingredients work perfectly fine for me.

I read through the recipe and I read through the comments. I tried to dry my spinach as much as possible. I chilled the mixture for longer than an hour, compacted it into dumplings and put them in the freezer. I had the water at a "poaching egg simmer." Let's just say we ended up having a version of creamed spinach. Be warned if you try this recipe, it doesn't work for the majority of us it seems. I think the dumplings need more flour and egg, and spinach that should be dried for a day or so.

DeeJ April 20, 2016

I made these last nite, in a rush, refrigerated for only 20 min...and came out really well (considering). Yes, don't boil water too briskly. Next time I think will compact each dumpling while forming. Will def. make again!

Dan April 28, 2015

Made these last night. Glad I didn't read the comments first, I might have gotten scared off. I didn't have any problems with them falling apart. I did stick them back in the refrigerator for about 15 minutes, after forming the balls, because they seemed a bit too sticky and the dough/batter wasn't as firm as I expected after the hour cooling. Next time I'll add bacon/pancetta to the mix to see how that tastes.

Yes...if the water is boiling too rapidly things can fall apart- think poached eggs or anything delicate.

There had been a lot of discussion about the consistency of the dumplings, but I wonder if the temperature of the water makes an important difference. IOW, if the dumplings are put in when the water is at a rapid boil, might they be more likely to come apart? anyone have thoughts?

Total failure!! Draind spinach for about 5 hours in collander squeezing often with spoon. Cooled in fridge 1 hour. Totally disintegrated when I put it in water. Not even going to waste my time or money on ingredients to try this again.

So I read about all the failures( disintegrating) , upped the flour, super dried the spinach and voila! disintegration! So ,yes, I baked and that is OK but if the percent of failure is as high as these comments indicate, why not REMOVE this? That is one thing I do not like about this site. Otherwise, addicting.

This recipe is not written well. The first step includes melting "the butter" and "adding spinach to the pan". Then, in step 5, 2 tbsp of the butter is to be added to the baking dish and the remaining 2 tbsp are for topping the dumplings. My learning is that I should read a recipe all the way through before cooking, but as written, the recipe is very misleading!