Sunday, February 8, 2026
Ingredients
For the Gnudi:
- 1 15-oz can of pumpkin purée (I use roasted, processed squash from the garden)
- 16-oz whole milk ricotta
- 8-oz frozen, chopped spinach (or other leafy green)
- 2 large eggs
- 4-oz freshly grated parmesan about 1 cup, plus more for serving
- 1/2 tsp nutmeg
- 1.5 Tbsp Herbs de Provence
- 1 tsp kosher salt plus more for boiling the gnudi
- Freshly ground black pepper
- 3/4 cup all-purpose flour (105 g / 3.7 oz)
- 5 Tbsp semolina flour for rolling
For the Sage Brown Butter Sauce:
- 8 Tbsp salted butter (113g / 4 oz)
- 1/3 cup fresh sage leaves
Instructions
- Dry the ricotta, spinach, pumpkin:
- Defrost the frozen spinach, and drain the water out by pressing it into a sieve with a fork. When it's mostly dry, squeeze the rest of the liquid out with your hands. Chop very finely.
- Drain the ricotta in a mesh sieve for 30 minutes, stirring occasionally.
- Preheat oven to 325°F. Spread the pumpkin on baking sheet and let it dry out until it is the texture of play-doh, stirring every 15 minutes for 30 minutes. Alternatively, you mught be able to simply mix the pumpkin with the ricotta in teh sieve and drain the liquid out that way.
- In a large mixing bowl, add the chopped spinach, pumpkin, ricotta, 2 eggs, 4 ounces of parmesan, dried spices, and 1 tsp salt. Add a few cracks of black pepper and mix well.
- Add all-purpose flour in 1/4 cup increments to the bowl and mix. Gently mix until combined.
- Dust a half sheet pan with 3 Tbsp of semolina flour. Use a 1.5 Tbsp cookie scoop to portion the dough into 22-24 gnudi. Set them on top of the floured sheet pan and dust them with another 2 Tbsp of semolina flour. Roll the gnudi into balls, coating them in semolina flour.
- Let these rest in the fridge for 5 hours up to 24 hours. (You might be able to get away with freezing them for an hour instead.)
- When ready to cook them, prepare a large sheet pan with paper towels to the side of your stove. Bring a large pot of water to a boil, salt it liberally. Add 6 gnudi to the water at a time and boil until they float, around 5 minutes. When they are floating, transfer them to the paper towels to rest.
- Prepare sage leaves: In a large pan to the side, prepare the brown butter sauce. Put the pan over medium heat. Melt 2 tablespoons of salted butter and fry the sage leaves in batches, 2-3 minutes or until they are a shade darker in color. Transfer the sage leaves to a paper towel to drain.
- Prepare butter sauce: Reduce the heat on the pan to low. Now, add the remaining 6 Tbsp of butter 2-Tbsp at a time. Incrementally add 2-Tbsp splashes of the gnudi cooking water. Whisk to create an emulsified butter sauce.
- Add the gnudi to the butter sauce, gently warming them up in it.
- Serve the gnudi on serving plates, top with crispy sage and freshly grated parmesan and eat warm!
