The worlds’ most easy homemade gnocchi – by using ricotta instead of mashed potatoes, you can make gnocchi from scratch in just 30 minutes. The gnocchi is light and fluffy, like mini pillows of ricotta goodness. Toss ricotta gnocchi in a simple browned butter sauce or a tomato sauce – you choose!
EASIEST homemade Gnocchi recipe
Pillowy soft gnocchi is a thing of beauty. And while nowadays, we can get great store bought gnocchi, there is something so satisfying about making it at home.
So what if I told you that you can make homemade gnocchi from scratch in 30 minutes?
Start to finish, including cooking. With no special equipment required and very little mess!
This method I’m sharing today is a ricotta gnocchi. A much easier way to make gnocchi than the traditional mashed potato method, ricotta gnocchi is faster and virtually foolproof.
Anyone can make ricotta gnocchi, even beginner cooks. On the other hand, potato gnocchi is a recipe for capable cooks, requiring a deft hand, a gentle touch and a good feel for dough.
Ricotta gnocchi has both a similar texture and flavour to traditional potato gnocchi!
How to make really easy Homemade Gnocchi
Ricotta is the secret ingredient for this really easy homemade gnocchi. I call ricotta gnocchi “Italian fast food” – because it’s so quick to make!
Here’s what you need:
Ricotta
Parmesan
Flour
Eggs
Salt and pepper
Just mix them together, then use your hands to bring it all together into a soft dough.
Roll into ropes then cut into bite size pieces.
How to cook Gnocchi
Gnocchi is cooked in the same way as pasta – in boiling water. Fresh homemade gnocchi only takes a minute or two. You will know when gnocchi is cooked because they rise to the surface!
Then just drain and toss in your sauce of choice.
Best sauce for gnocchi
The classic sauce for gnocchi is butter sauce. I love butter sauce because it really let’s the flavour of gnocchi come through.
But sometimes, I like my gnocchi to be nice and saucy like pastas. On such days, I make a tomato pasta sauce instead.
Both are lovely, so you choose because both sauce options are provided! 🙂
Making gnocchi ahead of time
Gnocchi freezes brilliantly! Just freeze the uncooked gnocchi, then just cook from frozen. Imagine how smug you will feel if you have a stash of homemade gnocchi in your freezer!
Serve this gnocchi with a fresh garden salad tossed with Balsamic Dressing or Italian Dressing. If you want to go all out, add a side of Garlic Bread! – Nagi x
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Easy Homemade Ricotta Gnocchi
Ingredients
Gnocchi
Browned Butter Sauce
- 4 tbsp / 60 g unsalted butter
- 1/4 tsp cooking / kosher salt (omit if using salted butter)
- Black pepper
Tomato Sauce
- 2 tbsp olive oil
- 3 garlic cloves , minced
- 1/2 onion , finely diced
- 28 oz / 800 g canned crushed tomatoes
- 1 tbsp mixed dried Italian herbs (or any combination of dried parsley, basil, oregano and thyme)
- 1 tsp salt
- Black pepper
Garnish
- Freshly grated parmesan
- Fresh parsley , finely chopped (optional)
Instructions
Homemade ricotta gnocchi
- Mix – Put all the gnocchi ingredients in a bowl except the flour. Use a rubber spatula or wooden spoon to mix until combined (smear up the wall if needed, to help cream the ricotta).
- Add flour – Add 3/4 cup of flour and mix until just combined so it is a very sticky dough that will hold its shape in a mound, but is not runny and stir-able like a batter (see video for consistency). Stickier dough = softer gnocchi! Use the remaining flour, 1 tbsp at a time, if needed, but try to stick with 3/4 cup. (Note 3)
- Logs – Sprinkle a work surface with flour then scrape the dough out onto it. Sprinkle the surface lightly with flour then use your hands to bring the dough into a disc about 2.5cm/1" thick. Cut it into 8 wedges.
- Roll and cut – Roll each piece into a log 25cm/10" long, about 1.25cm / 1/2" wide. Cut into 1 1/2 cm / 3/5" pieces (I cut 4 logs at a time).(Can freeze at this point – Note 4)
Cook gnocchi
- Boil – Bring a large pot of water to boil. Tumble the gnocchi in and cook for around 2 1/2 minutes, or until the gnocchi is floating on the surface for around 30 seconds.
- Drain – Reserve 1 mug of cooking water. Then drain and add the gnocchi into the frypan with your sauce of choice (you only need one of them, not both). Follow the instructions below.
Browned Butter Sauce
- Melt the butter in a large fry pan over medium high heat. Let it bubble until it turns brown. Add the salt and pepper. If the gnocchi isn't ready yet, remove from the stove until ready.
- Add gnocchi – Pour the cooked gnocchi into the fry pan along with 1/2 cup of the reserved cooking water. Gently stir, coating the gnocchi in the melted butter, cooking for 1 minute. This is the step when the butter and starch in the water emulsify so the sauce coats each piece of gnocchi.
- Do a taste test and add more salt if required. Serve immediately.
Tomato Sauce
- Sauté – Heat the olive oil over medium high heat. Add the garlic and onion. Sauce for 3 to 5 minutes until the onion is translucent. Add the remaining ingredients and cook for 10 minutes. Do a taste test and adjust saltiness to taste.
- Add the gnocchi and 1/2 cup of the reserved cooking water. Cook for 1 minute, stirring gently. The olive oil and starch in the water will emulsify to thicken the sauce so it clings to the gnocchi better.
To Serve
- Serve immediately as the gnocchi will start to harden after about 15 minutes as it cools. You can reheat in the microwave to soften.
- Garnish with freshly grated parmesan and parsley, if desired.
Recipe Notes:
Nutrition
Nutrition assuming 3 servings with Browned Butter Sauce (left) and Tomato Sauce (right).
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Favourite ricotta gnocchi. Easy simple quick and so tasty! Nagi you don’t disappoint 🥰
So easy, I made this with my teenager because they requested gnocchi. Was super light and all the family enjoyed it. We made the tomato sauce
I should have said I used the Perfect Italiano Ricotta in a 500g tub from supermarket and it was fine. I’d love to try fresh ricotta but it worked perfectly to use this as there’s 5 of us so I doubled the recipe
I found what made making the gnocchi really quick is to roll all your logs out first – before cutting – this way you can get them all very even in width, and then length because you can then cut multiple logs at once
Love, love, love!
Beautiful and easier than potato ones.
Your instructions are really good too.
Love it❤️
Incredibly light gnocchi. I love that you roll the gnocchi into logs and then cut into sections as this way is much easier than using a spoon to section the gnocchi pieces. We made a tomato and sausage sauce to serve it with. Absolute hit with the family. Served it up with a sprinkle of parmesan and parsley.
Tried, now I won’t make it any other way, my family think I am so clever haha, I wont tell them how easy it was.
These were incredible, light and fluffy. My ricotta was a little wet and I had to add the extra 1/4 cup of flour, still fabulous. I would always choose these over potatoe gnocchi. Thanks Nagi
Fantastic recipe Nagi! I have been looking for a way to make gnocchis the easy way for many years. These came out fantastico! Genuine floaters, I thought they might levitate at any moment 🙂 I made them Sorrentino style with Marcella Hazan’s tomato and onion sauce and burrata and fresh basil. Delizioso! Thanks for this great great recipe!
Deliciously perfectly fluffy gnocchi! This recipe is a keeper for sure – thanks Nagi!
PS: those asking about the ricotta…I believe it’s the basket ricotta that is shrink-wrapped and is available on the shelves with the other refrigerated cheeses or at the deli counter. It’s not the runnier stuff you can buy in lidded containers in the cheese section, nor is it the stuff sold by weight by deli staff (where they carve off a slice from a giant block for you to your weight specifications). By the way In Australia Aldi sell 500g baskets in their cheese section which is perfect for making a double batch as per the recipe. Don’t need to strain or dry it, just take it out of the oven plastic bag and tip off any liquid.
When I made these, I froze half for a future meal, as per instructions. That second meal was tonight. I will say I definitely preferred them freshly made and cooked. The frozen ones were cooked with the same brown butter/crispy sage sauce, still delicious but These ricotta gnocchi were definitely nicer when made fresh and eaten without the freezing!
Just ignore the word ‘oven’ there! Thanks autocorrect 🙂
Is the ricotta used the one in the basket?
Had some leftover ricotta in need of using up, this was a quick delicious lunchtime creation! I mistakenly used self-raising flour, cooked them anyway and they turned out so light and fluffy – a mistake I might need to make again!
I never thought I’d be able to make melt in your mouth gnocchi……until now. I had a tub of ricotta leftover from Christmas & had a craving for Gorgonzola sauce. Match made in heaven! The gnocchi was easy & fuss free to make. Light & pillowy as described. Was perfect with Gorgonzola sauce. Great recipe, make it!
These are my daughter’s favourite food. We make them every few weeks, delicious.
These were delicious little pillows of delight. I normally feel so heavy after having potato gnocchi, but these were so light. They were so simple!
So delicious and so easy!
Can’t believe how quick it was to make. Will be making again, however I will make the sauce first so it has longer to simmer.
Made this last night. I had doubled the recipe and put in 1.5 cups as suggested, but found it too dry. I think it was because my ricotta was quite dry (I made it and squeezed out loads of liquid). So I just added some whey/milk until it was the consistency I thought it should be. Also made it with whole meal flour and…. used a bag parmesan from aldi since I didnt have fresh parmesan, I put it through the processor first to break it up! It was pretty tasty, I imagine if I followed the recipe more closely it would be even tastier!
This was so easy and the texture was amazing.
Would it be okay to omit the parmesan cheese from the gnocchi next time? It’s quite expensive!
whats the best flour to use? Pasta \bread /tip00 or normal?
Great Recipe! I made this for the first time instead of making potato gnocchi, and it came out wonderful. The texture was better than potato gnocchi and it was easier to prepare. My wife was very pleased with the results. I opted for the tomato sauce over the butter sauce. This will be my ‘go to’ recipe for gnocchi from now on. Thank you!
Woo hoo Tim! That’s amazing!! I am so glad you both enjoyed it! N x
Wonderful recipe Nagi! Had gluten free guests and made the gnocchi using gluten free flour. I would advise only using half the amount of regular flour as stated in the recipe, and add more if necessary. It was a triumph! Everyone absolutely loved it. Thank you