One pasta dish we find no matter where we travel in Italy on our Italiaoutdoors Food and Wine tours – from the Dolomites to Venice, Tuscany to Piedmont to the Amalfi Coast -is gnocchi. Is gnocchi pasta? It is the ancestor of pasta, which began as dumplings formed from flour and water, poached in water. These small dumplings, the name gnocchi probably coming from the Italian word for knuckle, nocca, date as early as the Roman empire.

Recipes for gnocchi incorporating cheese, flour, and eggs appear as far back as the cookbooks of the thirteenth century. The original flour and water mixture for gnocchi is still used today in many regional recipes in Italy, where they take different names and shapes, and many are now considered pasta – from orecchiette in Apulia to Sardinia’s malloreddus.

As the years passed, gnocchi evolved to include a multitude of possible ingredients, incorporating whatever leftovers were on hand. The result is a wonderful variety of regional variations. Among the options, you can find gnocchi based on stale bread, ricotta and other cheeses, semolina, buckwheat, spinach, meats like speck and even spleen. Potato gnocchi are the ones we see most frequently on our Veneto tours, but these didn’t appear in Italy until potatoes were introduced in the 1600s.

This version, from Pasta by Hand: A Collection of Italy’s Regional Hand-Shaped Pasta, by Jenn Louis, hails from Piedmont, home to our Barolo Walk and Wine tours. A dramatic purple-red color, they are an elegant way to use up any leftover roasted beets. Louis recommends serving with the Brown Butter and Sage sauce included below. I’ve also included an interesting variation, inspired by the cuisine of the Dolomites and the Casunziei of Cortina, a Brown Butter and Poppy Seed sauce, topped with smoked ricotta if you can find some!

Piedmont is best known for its amazing red wines, Barolo and Barbaresco. But some nice whites are produced as well. I enjoyed a Gavi wine from producer Michele Chiarlo (who also makes great Barolo). Cortese is the grape behind the Gavi wine, and is aromatic, crisp, floral, with a hint of peach.

Gnocchi di Ricotta e Barbabietole – Beet and Ricotta Gnocchi

1 pound or so large red beets (4 large), trimmed
Kosher salt and freshly ground pepper
2 teaspoons extra virgin olive oil
1/4 cup water
1 egg
1 cup whole milk ricotta cheese
1 cup finely grated Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese
Freshly grated nutmeg
3 cups all-purpose flour, plus more for dusting
Semolina flour for dusting

Preheat oven to 350°F. Place the beets in a baking dish large enough to hold them in a single layer. Season with salt and pepper, drizzle with olive oil, and add the water. Cover the baking dish tightly with aluminum foil and roast until the beets can be easily pierced with a fork, 40 to 60 minutes. Remove from the oven, uncover, and set aside to cool. When cool enough to handle, slip the skins off the beets with your fingers or a paring knife. Cut the beets into large chunks.

In a blender or or the bowl of a food processor, combine the beets and egg and process until very smooth.

In a large bowl or bowl of a stand mixer fitted with a paddle attachment, combine 1 1/2 cups of beet puree, the ricotta cheese, Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese, a few swipes of nutmeg, and 1 tablespoon salt. Mix with your hands or on medium speed, until fully combined. Scrape down the sides of the bowl. Add the all-purpose flour and knead with your hand or on low speed just until combined. Do not over mix, as this will make the gnocchi tough. The dough should be soft and slightly sticky.

Dust 1/2 cup all-purpose flour on the work surface, the scrape the dough from the bowl directly on top of the flour. Lightly dust the top of the dough with more all-purpose flour. Cover the dough with plastic wrap and let rest at room temperature for 30 minutes.

Line two baking sheets with parchment paper and dust with semolina flour. Cut off a chunk of dough about the width of two fingers and leave the rest covered with plastic wrap. On a work surface very lightly dusted with all-purpose flour, use your hands to roll the chunk into a log about 1/2 inch in diameter. Cut the log into 1/4 inch pieces. Put the gnocchi on the prepared baking sheets and shape the remaining dough. Make sure that the gnocchi don’t touch or they will stick together.

(To store, refrigerate on the baking sheet, covered with plastic wrap, for up to 2 days, or freeze on the baking sheet and transfer to an airtight container. Use within 1 month. Do not thaw before cooking.)

Bring a large pot filled with generously salted water to a simmer over medium-high heat. Add the gnocchi and simmer until they float to the surface, 1 to 3 minutes. Remove immediately with a slotted spoon and finish with your choice of sauce.

Brown Butter with Sage

3/4 cup unsalted butter
12 fresh sage leaves
Kosher salt

In a medium sauce pan, melt the butter with the sage over medium-low heat. Continue cooking, stirring occasionally, until the butter becomes golden brown and the milk solids separate to the bottom of the pan and turn toasty, about 10 minutes. Remove from heat and season lightly with salt.

To finish gnocchi with brown butter, add six portions of cooked gnocchi to the sauce. Toss to coat and spoon into serving bowls. Serve immediately, garnished with grated Parmigiano-Reggiano.

Brown Butter with Poppy Seeds

Same recipe, replace sage leaves with 1 tablespoon poppy seeds. Garnish with Parmigiano-Reggiano, or, if you can find it, grated smoked ricotta.