Word of the Day...

*First of all:  THANK YOU AGAIN TO MY BFF AMY FOR MY AWESOME NEW "CHRISTMAS HEADER!!!!"  Her talents keeps my blog looking oh-so-pretty!  Thanks again, Amy!! *

Sooooo...the word of yesterday???  Any guesses on the name of these little dumplings of spinach & ricotta MAGIC???

GNUDI!  Say it with me:  NUUUUUUUUU-DE!  (Yes, I probably said that roughly 87 times last night while we were making dinner...MUCH to Scott's delight, as you could imagineJ)  And what, pray tell, is so...ahem...GNUD about this dinner??  The dumplings are actually the FILLING of raviolis WITHOUT the pasta! 

And while I originally believed that this dish was created by some carb-avoiding chef in California a few years ago since I HIGHLY doubted my Great Grandmother was whipping up GNUDI in Naples back in the day, I was actually surprised to find out it was a Tuscan dish.  Hmmm...who would have thunk!  This has Dr. Atkins written ALL over itJ hahahahhahahaha.... 

I followed Giada's recipe and these little GNUDI'S couldn't be simpler to whip up (Good thing, since Scott came home STARVING last night....so imagine that coupled with the word gnudi heard in rounds around my kitchen...J)

While you get a pot of salted water beginning to boil on the stove, you simply combine:

• 1 cup ricotta (I used part skim and it worked fine)
• 1 cup Parmesan Cheese
• 1 pound of frozen spinach (thawed and squeezed dry)
• 2 eggs
• 2 egg yolks
• 5 tablespoons of flour
• Sprinkle of salt, pepper & nutmeg

Mix all the ingredients together and you're good to go.  (Looks just like our homemade ravioli filling, huh??)

Next, you hand form the ricotta mixture into little round dumplings and dredge them in a light coating of flour... 

SLOWLLLLY add a few gnudi to your boiling water one at a time, making sure not to over crowd your pot.  After you *GASP* that these things haven't COMPLETELY dissolved in the boiling water, cook for 4 minutes and remove with a slotted spot to a pan of heated gravy to keep warm while you cook up the next batch... 

It took about 3 batches to cook all of the gnudi....which only took about 12 minutes...not too shabby!

And on man, were these soooo yummy!  Cheesy, saucy goodness...but without that 'heavy ravioli' feel (although DON'T GET ME WRONG:  I LOVE ME ALL TYPES OF RAVIOLI!)... 

Great for a QUICK and sorta-on-the-lighter side/but still sorta decadent dinner.  Try making these TONIGHT!!

OK, so it's 8:30am and I've already had an AWESOME breakfast which I will share with you...tomorrow! hehehehehehhehehee  Hope you guys have a great Thursday and stayyyy tunedJ