Spinach and ricotta gnudi

Prep time: 50 minutes, plus draining and chilling time Cook time: 25 minutes

Serves 6

One of my favourite dishes. Gnudi are easier to make than you might think, and they’re so soft and delicate. If you can find fresh wild mushrooms, use them instead of the oyster mushrooms, or cook a mixture. Fresh peas can replace the broad beans.

INGREDIENTS

– 250g ricotta, preferably fresh rather than UHT

– 470g spinach, coarse ribs or stems removed – 15g unsalted butter, plus 60g to serve

– 3 shallots, very finely chopped

– nutmeg, freshly grated – 2 egg yolks – 100g Parmesan, finely grated, plus extra to serve

– 20g plain flour, plus a little more for dusting – 250g broad beans, podded weight

– 225g asparagus spears – ½ tbsp olive oil

– 225g oyster mushrooms, sliced or torn apart

METHOD

Tip the ricotta into a muslin-lined sieve set over a bowl. Put in the fridge and leave it so that the excess moisture can drip through: a couple of hours should do it.

Wash the spinach and put it in a saucepan with the water that’s still clinging to it. Cover the pan and cook the spinach over a medium heat, turning it over with tongs after it’s started to wilt. It should take 4-5 minutes to cook. Drain and leave to cool. Squeeze the water out of the spinach between two dinner plates being pressed together. You can also do this with your hands (it’s really important that you get as much water out as possible).

Heat 15g of butter in a frying pan and gently cook the shallots until soft but not coloured. Chop the spinach and add it to the pan. Heat the spinach, adding nutmeg, salt and pepper. This also makes the spinach drier. Leave to cool, then put it in a bowl with the drained ricotta, egg yolks, Parmesan and flour. Mix with a spoon or spatula. Taste a bit of the raw mixture for seasoning.

Lightly flour a large roasting tin or rimmed baking sheet. Using wet hands – I find this easier than floured hands – form balls larger than a marble and slightly smaller than a walnut. As you make the gnudi, roll each one lightly in flour. When you have formed all of them, cover them with cling film and put in the fridge to chill for a couple of hours (or you can leave them overnight). This chilling is crucial.

Boil the broad beans until tender, about three minutes. Drain and rinse with cold water. Slip each bean out of its skin. Set aside.

Feel along the asparagus to where there’s a natural bend – that marks the point where the woody bit is. Break or cut the asparagus here and keep the discards for something else (you can boil them and add them to a soup or a risotto). Steam or microwave the asparagus until it’s only just tender. The time this takes depends on how thick the spears are. Halve the asparagus if the spears are long. Set aside along with the broad beans.

To cook the gnudi, put a big saucepan of salted water on to boil, then reduce the heat to a gentle simmer. Melt 50g of butter in a large frying pan, remove it from the heat and cover to keep the butter warm. Simmer the gnudi in batches, lowering them into the water with a slotted spoon. After a couple of minutes they should have bobbed to the surface. Lift them out with a slotted spoon and put in the butter in the frying pan. Cover to keep them warm.

Quickly heat the olive oil in a frying pan and cook the mushrooms over a medium-high heat. Mushrooms throw out a lot of liquid and you need this to evaporate, or browncoloured water will leach out and make your vegetable mixture look horrible.

Add the last bit of butter to the mushrooms – it’s great for their flavour – and toss the asparagus and broad beans into the pan. Season and warm the vegetables through.

Spoon the gnudi on to six warm plates or pasta dishes, along with the butter they’ve been sitting in. (If they’ve cooled down, gently heat them again.) Spoon the vegetables around the gnudi. Add black pepper and scatter Parmesan on top. Serve immediately.