• Choose a category
• All
• Classic-Fiction

By Root 347 0

are worth the effort and care involved to make them light and airy. And this is important: Once you begin the process, there is no answering the phone or running to the bathroom. You must keep working until they are finished. The dumplings can be frozen for up to 4 weeks, so you can serve half of them right away and freeze the other half for a future, fantastic, stress-free meal. Ingredients for final serving make four portions. If you’d like to serve all 90 dumplings at once, double the serving ingredients and use two very large skillets. This recipe was Bon Appétit’s Dish of the Year for 2006.

1 small bunch dandelion greens, tough stems removed

3 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil

4 shallots, finely chopped

3 cloves garlic, smashed and chopped

7 ounces spicy lamb sausage (such as merguez), sliced

¾ cup thick tomato sauce, homemade or store-bought

8 large sun-dried tomatoes

1 cup pine nuts

¼ cup Garlic Purée (page 264, optional)

½ recipe (about 45) Dumplings (recipe follows)

¼ cup crumbled feta cheese

½ cup small, picked sprigs parsley

½ cup small, picked sprigs dill

FOR THE DUMPLINGS

1 pound fresh, whole-milk ricotta, very cold (see “Ricotta,” page xii)

All-purpose flour, as necessary, chilled for at least 2 hours

3 large eggs, cold, well beaten

1½ cups grated graviera cheese

2 teaspoons kosher salt

1½ teaspoons freshly ground black pepper

Semolina flour, for the baking sheet

Prepare an ice water bath. In a large pot of well-salted boiling water, cook the dandelion greens until tender (about 5 minutes), then retrieve with a skimmer (reserving the boiling water for cooking the dumplings). Shock the greens in the ice water bath. Drain, squeeze dry, and chop coarsely. Reserve.

Get all of your remaining ingredients together. Bring the dandelion-cooking water to a boil in a wide sauté pan so you will be able to work quickly.

In a very large skillet, warm the olive oil over medium heat. Add the shallots and cook for 2 minutes, to soften. Add the garlic and sliced sausage. Sauté for 2 minutes, then stir in the tomato sauce, a cup or so of the dandelion-cooking water, the sun-dried tomatoes, dandelion greens, pine nuts, and Garlic Purée. Reduce to a simmer and cook until sauce is the thickness of a marinara.

In the boiling water, cook the dumplings just until they rise to the surface; then retrieve with a skimmer. Shake gently and add to the other skillet, along with the feta and herbs. Toss to coat the pillowy dumplings with the chunky-saucy mixture.

For the dumplings, unless you have a source for very fresh, dry ricotta: line a colander with a doubled layer of cheesecloth and place over a bowl. Turn the ricotta into the colander and leave to drain overnight in the refrigerator. (If you skip this step, your dumplings will require much more flour and will not be light and airy.)

Assemble all your well-chilled ingredients, clear your schedule, and turn off the phone. Generously dust a large board or marble slab with flour. In a large metal bowl, combine the ricotta, beaten eggs, graviera, salt, and pepper. Mix well with a large rubber spatula, breaking up the ricotta. Scatter two large handfuls all-purpose flour around the edges of the bowl. Using a spatula, gently lift the dough, working your way around the edges, only to cover the dough so it doesn’t stick to the bottom of the bowl. There should be a substantial amount of flour on the outside of the mass, as you get underneath to coat. Scatter two large handfuls of flour on a clean work surface and turn out dough. Scoop from the bottom and fold it over gently toward the center, keeping the dough in a large, tall mass, always using a light and gentle hand. Add more flour by the handful, scattering it over the dough and the work surface and lightly working—not “kneading”—the dough just until it is no longer sticky or tacky. The quantity of flour depends on how wet the ricotta is; the idea is to add no more than is necessary to prevent sticking and make the dough stiff enough to maintain its shape and yet remain very delicate and tender. Cut off a quarter