The return...

Sooo...having soup twice in one week seemed quite a bit more appealing while I was snuggled up against the cold earlier this week.  But by yesterday afternoon, when we were able to sneak in a walk in the park with Penny when Scott got home from work and the breeze actually felt WARMMMM, it didn't seem AS appropriateJ  Buttttttt...I pressed on with our dinner plans because this wasn't just a normal bowl of soup...

Oh no.  It was FILLED with the return of your favorite AND mine:  GNUDI!!!!! 

In review:  Gnudi, while not only being one of the best words on the planet, are dumplings made with the FILLING of raviolis WITHOUT the pasta. 

For this recipe (adapted from Giada's  "Everyday Pasta"), I mixed together:

• 1 & 1/4 cup ricotta (I used part skim)
• 1/4 cup grated Parmesan Cheese
• 1 egg
• 1 Tablespoon diced Thyme (what I had on hand...but the recipe called for fresh parsley)
• Dash of nutmeg
• Salt & Pepper
• 1/4 cup flour (add right before the next step)

Next, form the GNUDI into little dumplings and dredge lightly in more flour....

Gently, drop about 6-7 of them into a pot of salted, boiling water.  Once they rise to the top and cook about 4 minutes, remove them from the pot and start a new batch. 

While I mixed & cooked the gnudi, I also had a pot of...

• 6 cups of chicken broth
• 2 diced carrots
• 1 box of frozen spinach, defrosted 

...going on the next burner.

I had thought I needed the spinach for the gnudi recipe like last time, but when I realized this recipe didn't call for it (and I was nervous 'spinach gnudi' would have broken up in broth), far be it from me to waste a box of spinach...so I just added it to the brothJ

Another thing I was nervous about was adding the cooked gnudi to my boiling chicken broth.  I don't necessarily think they were as DELICATE as I thought, but I had wanted to follow Giada's directions and had the cooked gnudi's 'resting' on a separate plate.   

Once all of the gnudi were cooked, I added a few to each of our soup bowls... 

...and topped them off with the spinach chicken broth.... 

YUM...warm & soul satisfying.  OK, OK...there is ONE thing I'd change.  I would have added a little more SPICE to the gnudi.  These ones were a bit on the bland side.  Giada's recipe called for an ounce of diced prosciutto, which I'm sure would have helped the bland situation....but these were still filling & satisfyingJ 

So I'm sure I'm the only person in the tristate area to say it, but I am NOT a fan of this weather.  It's an absolutely glorious and sunny 60's degrees right now, which would be lovely...in April.  But it's January!  I want blizzards, cozy comfort food and snow on my neighbors roof.  I'm sure it'll snow in May...or whenever I have to go have this babyJ hahahahahahhahahaa....

Anyway...go enjoy your sunny SaturdayJ