Roasted Beet Ricotta Gnocchi with Wilted Beet Greens #SundayFunday

 

Today the Sunday Funday group is celebrating the beetroot superfood. Thanks to Stacy of Food Lust People Love, Sue of Palatable Pastime, Rebekah of Making Miracles, and Wendy of A Day in the Life on the Farm for coordinating this low-stress group. 

Today Mayuri of Mayuri's Jikoni is hosting and she's given us the prompt of making recipes with beets, writing "Use beetroot or beetroot greens in a dish of your choice. Can be anything from a starter to a dessert...just make sure beetroot is one of the main ingredients." Here's the line-up of what the #SundayFunday bloggers are making...

• Beet Hummus with Goat Cheese from Amy's Cooking Adventures
• Beet Salad with Goat Cheese from Making Miracles
• Beetroot Vada from Mayuri's Jikoni
• Easy Pickled Beets from Food Lust People Love
• Ginger Beetroot and Celery Juice from Cook with Renu
• Kubbah Selek - Semolina Dumpling and Beet Soup from Pandemonium Noshery
• Laal Sabzi /Beetroot Sabzi from Sneha's Recipe
• Roasted Beet Ricotta Gnocchi with Wilted Beet Greens from Culinary Adventures with Camilla
• Roasted Beet Salad from A Day in the Life on the Farm

Purple Dirt Circles

Back in the Before Times (as in before the COVID pandemic), I had friends over for dinner at least once a month. And a decade ago, when I served beets to a good friend, he whined, "Are you mad at me? Why are you feeding me purple dirt circles?!?" 

And since one of my missions in life is to expand people's palates, especially in regards to fresh fruits and vegetables, I figured that I would build an entire menu around those purple dirt circles and prove to him how tasty they really are. I created an entire dinner party menu around beets...and proved that they don't taste like dirt and they aren't just purple. I bought red beets, golden beets and - my visual favorite - chioggia beets which are striped red and white like peppermint candies.

I cleaned and roasted a dozen beets as the basis of several recipes, including dessert! I made a Spiced Beet Mousse for that dinner party. And I'm proud to say that I swayed him to the beet-side. I've seen him voluntarily eat beets regularly after that dinner.

I often use beets to achieve a beautiful pink color naturally such as in my Beet-Marbled Eggs with Feta or in my Beet Ombre Cake with Burnt Sugar Buttercream. But, for Mayuri's event, I wanted to make a main dish and settled on using beets in a ricotta gnocchi.

Ingredients

Gnocchi

• 2 to 3 small red beets with greens attached (I actually used all 6 beets for the dinner, but only 2 to 3 in this recipe)
• 1⁄4 cup olive oil
• freshly ground salt
• 2 cups whole-milk ricotta
• 1 large egg, lightly beaten
• 1-1⁄4 cups flour plus more for rolling
• 1 cups grated Pecorino Romano plus more for serving
• dash of grated nutmeg
• freshly ground pepper

Sauce

• 3 to 4 cloves garlic, peeled and minced
• 1 to 2 cups beet greens
• 2 Tablespoons olive oil
• 2 Tablespoons butter
• 2 Tablespoons aged balsamic vinegar plus more for drizzling

Procedure

Roasted Beets

Separate the greens from the beets. Preheat oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit. Scrub and trim the beets, then roll them in olive oil and sprinkle them with salt. Lay them on a baking sheet. Roast until they are fork tender. It depends on the size of the beet, but it usually takes about an hour. Once they are cool enough to handle, rub off the skin.

Rinse and dry the beet greens. Chop them into 1" pieces.

Gnocchi

Place 2 to 3 small beets into the bowl of a food processor. Process until nicely chopped. Add in the ricotta and process until well-combined and a uniform pink color.

Spoon the beet-ricotta mixture into a large mixing bowl. Add in the egg, cheese, nutmeg, and pepper. Add flour, stirring with a silicone spatula to form a soft, wet dough.

Shape dough on a parchment-lined surface with lightly floured hands. Roll into 1" ropes and cut crosswise into 1" pieces with a lightly floured knife to form pillow dumplings.

To form the gnocchi, press a piece of dough onto the tines of a fork. Use your thumb to create a dimple in the top of the gnocchi. Roll the dough down the tines to create gnocchi's signature indentations.

Place on a parchment-lined baking sheet until you're ready to cook them.

Cook gnocchi in a few batches in a pasta pot of boiling salted water with a splash of olive oil. Add a few to the pot at a time, stirring occasionally. When they float to the surface, they are finished. Lift out with a slotted spoon and drain in colander.

Sauce

In a large, flat-bottom pot, heat olive oil. Cook garlic until softened. Stir in the beet greens and cook until wilted. Once your gnocchi are all cooked, add butter to the beet greens. When the butter is melted, lay the gnocchi in the pan in a single layer, if possible, tossing to coat with the butter. When the gnocchi have browned a little bit, sprinkle the entire dish with more Pecorino. Drizzle with balsamic vinegar. Serve hot.

We served these with grilled lamb lollipops. It was so tasty.

Well, that's a wrap for our #SundayFunday event about beets. We'll be back next week as Sue of Palatable Pastime prompts us to share recipes with umami. Hmmm...thinking cap is on. Stay tuned!