This potato-less gnocchi is made with that classic combination of spinach and ricotta, said Gennaro Contaldo. It's extremely simple to prepare, but do remember to squeeze out the excess liquid from the cooked spinach before mixing it with the rest of the ingredients. Served with a tomato sauce, it makes a delicious and hearty meal.
Ingredients
- 250g frozen spinach
- 1 x 250g tub ricotta
- 1 egg 40g grated parmesan, plus extra for sprinkling
- pinch of grated nutmeg
- sea salt
- 250g "00" flour, plus extra for dusting
For the tomato sauce:
The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.
Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
- 2 tbsp extra-virgin olive oil
- 2 garlic cloves, finely sliced
- 1 x 400g can chopped tomatoes
- sea salt
Method
- First make the tomato sauce. Heat the olive oil in a heavy-based pan over a medium heat and sweat the garlic for a minute or so, then add the tomatoes with a little water (rinsed from the can) and a little salt. Cover with a lid and cook over a medium-low heat for about 25 minutes.
- Meanwhile, make the gnocchi. Bring a pot of salted water to the boil and cook the frozen spinach for about 5 minutes. Drain well, squeezing out the excess liquid with your hands, then place on a chopping board and finely chop.
- Place the spinach in a large bowl with the ricotta, egg, parmesan, nutmeg and a little salt, and gradually add in the flour. Mix well until you obtain a smooth, soft dough.
- On a lightly floured work surface, roll the dough out into a long sausage shape. Then, using a sharp knife, cut the dough into 2.5cm (about one inch) lengths. Continue doing this until all the dough has been used up.
- Bring a large pot of salted water to the boil and drop the gnocchi into the water in batches, simmering them for about a minute until they rise to the top.
- Using a slotted spoon or a spider strainer, lift the gnocchi carefully out of the water and transfer to a dish. Pour over the tomato sauce and gently mix.
- Serve immediately with a sprinkling of grated parmesan, if you like.
Taken from Gennaro’s Verdure: Big and Bold Italian Recipes to Pack Your Plate with Veg by Gennaro Contaldo, published by Pavilion Books at £26. Photography by David Loftus. To buy from The Week Bookshop for £20.99 (incl. p&p), call 020-3176 3835 or visit theweekbookshop.co.uk.
Sign up for The Week's Food & Drink newsletter for recipes, reviews and recommendations.
-
Inside a Black community’s fight against Elon Musk’s supercomputerUnder the radar Pollution from Colossal looms over a small Southern town, potentially exacerbating health concerns
-
Codeword: December 4, 2025The daily codeword puzzle from The Week
-
Sudoku hard: December 4, 2025The daily hard sudoku puzzle from The Week
-
Jane Austen lives on at these timeless hotelsThe Week Recommends Here’s where to celebrate the writing legend’s 250th birthday
-
‘Mexico: A 500-Year History’ by Paul Gillingham and ‘When Caesar Was King: How Sid Caesar Reinvented American Comedy’ by David Margolickfeature A chronicle of Mexico’s shifts in power and how Sid Caesar shaped the early days of television
-
Homes by renowned architectsFeature Featuring a Leonard Willeke Tudor Revival in Detroit and modern John Storyk design in Woodstock
-
Film reviews: ‘Hamnet,’ ‘Wake Up Dead Man’ and ‘Eternity’Feature Grief inspires Shakespeare’s greatest play, a flamboyant sleuth heads to church and a long-married couple faces a postmortem quandary
-
May your loved ones eat, drink and be merry with these 9 edible Christmas giftsThe Week Recommends Let them eat babka (and cheese and licorice)
-
We Did OK, Kid: Anthony Hopkins’ candid memoir is a ‘page-turner’The Week Recommends The 87-year-old recounts his journey from ‘hopeless’ student to Oscar-winning actor
-
The Mushroom Tapes: a compelling deep dive into the trial that gripped AustraliaThe Week Recommends Acclaimed authors team up for a ‘sensitive and insightful’ examination of what led a seemingly ordinary woman to poison four people
-
10 concert tours to see this winterThe Week Recommends Keep cozy this winter with a series of concerts from big-name artists
