Ricotta Gnucky**

Joe and Lauren come over most weeks to watch Boardwalk Empire.  (Is anyone else out there watching this show?  Do you feel that, more than other HBO shows, it is needlessly gratuitous?  What's with all the bouncing breasts?  And blood spattering everywhere?  Also: why isn't Omar slash Chalky in EVERY SCENE?)

Anyways, Joe and Lauren are new parents, and they bring their baby, Gwen, who is Bean's favorite person in the world.  Including me and Matt.  But I can't take much offense, because to be fair, Gwen is way, way cuter than either of us.

In any case, when they came this weekend I made this New York Times recipe for ricotta gnocchi.  The article touts it as "light" but be forewarned: it pretty much consists entirely of cheese, flour, and butter.

Which is probably why I liked it so much.

You start by mixing a container of whole milk ricotta with flour, salt, pepper, two eggs, and a cup of freshly grated parmesano reggiano.  Then you drop rounded spoonfuls into a pot of boiling water six at a time, fishing them out after about a minute, when they rise to float on the surface of the water. 

And then, you throw them in the "sauce" which you have made in a saucepan by frying sage leaves in butter.  And you let them get all warm and golden and buttery and sagey.  

When you've cooked and tossed them all in the butter-sage mixture, I'd recommend squirting a slice of lemon in to add a little citrus lightness.  I didn't do this the first night, but the next day eating leftovers, it made a huge difference to balance out the heaviness of the cheese and butter.

Aaaaand they were phenomenal.  A special occasion treat, for sure, to those of us STILL working on the last ten pounds.  But phenomenal:

We served them with jalapeño bratwurst (from Greg's farm last summer) and some juicy honeycrisp apple slices, figuring that you really can't go wrong with that pork/sage/apple combination.

PHENOMENAL.

** Credit goes to Lauren for the awesome titular pun.