I moved away from New York City earlier this year. It was the place where I was born, the place I grew up, and the place I moved back to after graduating college.
There are a great many things I miss about the city -- chiefly my friends and family -- but a lot of little, simple things as well. The everything bagel is one of them, combined with scallion cream cheese. For anyone visiting the Big Apple when all this pandemic madness ends, my personal opinion is that Pick-a-Bagel on 77th and Lexington has the best in the city.
However, for those of you who, like me, are far away from the city, these everything inspired gnocchi certainly hit the spot. Made from a ricotta base with everything bagel spice (either the beloved Trader Joe's blend or another version) and filled with a cream cheese center, these are like little puffs of clouds that have gently drifted away from the city that never sleeps.
EVERYTHING BAGEL GNOCCHI
Time: 25 minutes
Serving: 3-4 servings
Ingredients:
1 1/2 cups (15 oz) whole milk ricotta cheese
3 egg yolks
1 cup (120 grams) all purpose flour
3/4 cup (28 grams) Parmesan, freshly-grated if possible
4 tbsp everything bagel spice
1/4 teaspoon salt
2 oz cream cheese (can add more or less to taste)
Directions:
Bring a large stockpot of generously-salted water to a boil over high heat.
In the meantime, drain the ricotta as much as possible. This can be done by placing 3-4 paper towels or coffee filters onto a large plate and spreading the ricotta over the paper towels in an even layer. Place another layer of 3-4 paper towels on top of the ricotta. Then press down gently to let the excess moisture soak into the paper towels -- sort of like draining tofu.
Once enough water has been removed so that the ricotta weighs 12 ounces, place the cheesy goodness into a large mixing bowl. Add the egg yolks, and stir together so that no lumps remain.
Then, add in the flour, parmesan, salt, and everything bagel spice. Try to stir as little as possible to keep the gnocchi nice and light.
Parceling out small sections, roll the dough out to shape it into long strings that are about 1/2 of an inch wide. I liked keeping them short for more control.
Then, gently flatten the dough. Roll out pieces of cream cheese to place in the center. Then, use a second flattened dough string and place it on top.
Roll the stuffed roll back and forth so that it returns to its cylinder shape and has no seams.
Cut the log into bite-sized gnocchi pieces. Continue doing this for all the dough. I've attached some pictures below -- they were taken in my dark kitchen with an iPhone, so I apologize for both the hastiness of the shots and the quality!
Dust the gnocchi bites with a sprinkling of flour. This helps them not stick together in the pot.
Carefully drop the gnocchi into the boiling water. When done, they will float to the top. This generally takes around a minute.
Remove the gnocchi. You can either eat them, as is, with your favorite pasta sauce, or lightly sauté them in a skillet to get a nice golden crust. The latter is my favorite -- I then use the extra butter as my sauce.
My unprofessional try-not-to-get-raw-egg-on-my-iPhone cooking pictures:
My slightly more professional pictures, taken with an actual camera and freshly washed hands:
Enjoy!
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