Spinach Ricotta Dumplings

One of the earliest recipes I found on Weelicious was for "Spinach Gnocch-wee", which, aside from having such a cute name, looked irresistably adorable in the picture.  I read the recipe and filed it away until my recent effort to compile links to all of the recipes I want to try, when I came across it again.  And now, with my ongoing attempts to get more vegetables and dairy into the munchkin, I realized that this recipe could be perfect.

So I set out to give them a try and found the mixture (dough?  batter?) came together really easily - you really can't beat instructions to throw all of the ingredients into the food processor.  But when it came time to make those perfect little balls I was inspired by, well, I have absolutely no idea how she did it.  I tried flouring my hands, but they were so sticky there was no way I was going to be able to make them round!  Enter plan B - take a cookie scoop (most useful kitchen tool ever!) and dump them directly into the boiling water to cook.

And the result?  Delicious - even the munchkin gobbled them up! - but not nearly as pretty as the ones in the picture.  Oh, well...not everything needs to be perfect!  Also, another change I made was to the name...I couldn't really figure out how these related to gnocchi (the shape maybe?  or soft texture?), so I decided to just call them dumplings.  But whatever you call them, these are definitely a keeper in my house!

See?  Not the most elegant, but they sure tasted good!

Spinach Ricotta Dumplings
adapted from Weelicious

10 oz box frozen chopped spinach
1 cup whole milk ricotta cheese
2/3 cup romano cheese, plus extra for serving
1 egg yolk
2 tbsp flour

Bring a large pot of water to a boil.

Defrost the frozen spinach (I did this in the microwave).  Squeeze all of the water out of the spinach by dumping it in a clean kitchen towel, making a pouch, and twisting until you can't get any more liquid out (don't worry, the green comes out in the wash!).

Place all of the ingredients in a food processor and pulse until smooth and thoroughly combined

Using a cookie scoop (you could probably also use 2 spoons), take approximately 1-2 teaspoons at a time and dump directly into the boiling water.  Do not overcrowd the pot - you'll probably need to do 2-3 batches.  Cook the dumplings for about 5 minutes (the last ones in probably cooked a little less than that).  Remove to a plate with a slotted spoon.  They will be very soft when they first come out but firm up a bit as they cool.

Serve sprinkled with additional romano cheese.

Makes approximately 6 servings