Ricotta Gnocchi - serves 3 to 4

I love this soft, fluffy pillow textured and extremely tasty dish. If my best friend had one dish i could make her, this is it! I serve mine with a butter sauce and crispy basil leaves over a cold passata.

Ingredients:
300g Fresh Ricotta
20g Parmesan cheese, grated
1 Egg, whisked
75g Plain Flour
80g Butter
20 Basil leaves
100g Passata 
Parmesan to garnish
Salt and Pepper to season

Method:
Place ricotta, parmesan and egg in bowl of a food processor and process until smooth. Add flour and process until just combined. . Season with salt and pepper. Cover and place in the fridge for 1 1/2 hours to chill.
To shape the gnocchi you can either, roll into small balls or divide the dough into four, and roll each piece into a 2 cm-thick log. Cut into 2cm pieces. Place on a lightly floured chopping board or work surface. 
To cook the gnocchi, drop them in several batches into a saucepan of simmering, lightly salted water and remove as soon as they float to the top, usually after 1 or 2 minutes. 
To make crispy basil leaves melt 40g of the butter in a frying pan over medium heat until it foams. Add basil leaves and cook,  for 1-2 minutes or until basil is crisp but do not let it brown. Drain on paper towel.
Add remaining butter to the frying pan and heat over medium heat for 2 minutes or until it turns a light brown. Add Gnocchi to get some colour.  Place cold passata on bottom of serving dish, stack gnocchi on top and drip butter sauce over the top. Serve hot with crispy basil leaves and parmesan cheese..



Note: I serve my tomato pasata cold as i like the different contrasts with cold sauce and hot gnocchi, but you can heat it if you prefer.