Food Lust People Love: gnocchi recipes

Wednesday, April 1, 2026

Ricotta Gnocchi à la Poêle

Tender on the inside and golden brown on the outside, this ricotta gnocchi à la poêle is a wonderful, protein-full dish, easily dressed up to suit any palate.

I’ve made gnocchi with polenta and with potatoes but the most tender kind of all is made with ricotta, which as a bonus, adds protein that the other two methods do not.

If you think gnocchi must be boiled, let me introduce you to a method I first learned in France. Anything cooked à la poêle simply means it’s been pan-fried over a reasonably high flame. In other words, it’s been seared in a hot pan to protect the insides from drying out.

Once the gnocchi are cooked, dress them with your favorite sauce or seasonings. Below I give the method, as per our idol Jacques Pépin, for gnocchi persillade, tossed with a mix of minced flat leaf parsley and fresh garlic.

I don’t know that he ever made gnocchi persillade but I have made pan-fried frog legs adapted from his recipe, finished with parsley and garlic and they are divine. Perhaps I’ll share that recipe someday!

Ricotta Gnocchi à la Poêle

This recipe makes enough to feed five or six people. Since we are not that many, I tried to freeze some in rolls wrapped in cling film but, once thawed, they needed way more flour to make them easy to roll out again and cut into pieces. Next time I will cook them all à la poêle before freezing them. I’m thinking that will work better. I’ll update this post when I do.

Ingredients

For the ricotta gnocchi:

8 ¾ oz or 250g ricotta, with any visible liquid poured off

2 cups or 250g 00 flour plus extra for rolling

1 large egg

For frying: 1 tablespoon olive oil

For the persillade:

2 cloves garlic

Several stems flat leaf parsley, leaves only

For adding the persillade:

1 tablespoon butter, divided

Method

In a large mixing bowl, mix together the ricotta, 1 cup or 125g of the flour and the egg and stir to combine.

Knead the dough with your hands, adding flour until you have a smooth elastic dough that is soft but not sticky. You may not use it all. It all depends on the moisture in your ricotta. (For this batch I only used 1½ cups or 188g flour.)

Roll the dough into a ball and wrap in cling film. Refrigerate for 30 minutes.

Separate the ball into 8 or so pieces. Working one at a time, roll out on a floured work surface into a long, even roll.

Use a knife to cut the roll into ½ in or 1 cm pieces.

Press the pieces with a floured fork.

Heat a non-stick frying pan over medium-high heat. When hot, drizzle in the olive oil. Add the gnocchi being careful not to crowd the pan. I only cooked two rolls for these photos and did it in two batches.

Pan fry for about three minutes or until browned on the one side.

Turn and pan fry for an additional 3-5 minutes on the other side. Remove to a plate and continue cooking the rest of the gnocchi in batches.

Meanwhile, remove the parsley leaves from the stalks and mince the parsley and garlic cloves.

To make the persillade, mix the minced parsley and garlic together.

Once all the gnocchi are browned and you are ready to serve, put them all back into the hot pan. Add in the tablespoon of butter, separated into three.

As the butter is melting, add in the persillade aka the parsley garlic mix.

Stir and pan fry for a few minutes to cook the garlic a bit, wilt the parsley and heat the ricotta gnocchi through.

Spoon straight on to plates or into a serving dish and serve hot.

Enjoy!

Welcome to the 7th edition of Alphabet Challenge 2026, brought to you by the letter G. Many thanks to Wendy from A Day in the Life on the Farm for organizing and creating the challenge. Check out all the G recipes below: