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It might be the fancy name and silent letter factor, but I was always intimidated by the process of making gnocchi. It seemed complicated and elusive, a dish I placed up high on a pedestal along with fresh pasta and souffle.

Achieving my lifelong dream of pasta making last year has built my confidence, thankfully, and I now consider myself to be infinitely more baking-brave and foodie-fierce. So, when a recipe for ricotta gnocchi that claimed to be quick and painless popped into my newsfeed, I knew the time had come.

Typically, gnocchi are made using mashed potato, flour, and egg, classifying them as dumplings rather than a pasta. There are numerous variations of his little dumpling dish that span across the regions of Italy.

While traditional gnocchi recipes aren’t overly complicated, they do involve the extra steps of boiling and mashing potatoes. This recipe substitutes ricotta for potato and so it skips those extra steps entirely. Simply drain the ricotta, mix a few ingredients, form the gnocchi pieces, and cook away. Rolling out the gnocchi logs by hand brought back the nostalgic memory of making “snakes” of Play-Doh with my son when he was a little boy. Gnocchi smells much better, though.

The first time I made this recipe it was wintertime and I topped it with a roasted tomato and eggplant sauce that I had frozen during the summer, but you can use any sauce or toppings you prefer with these gnocchi. They are tender little pillows of delight with loads of flavoring flexibility.

This go-round I wanted a lighter spring recipe and since I had picked up some gorgeous fresh asparagus at the co-op, I decided on a sauce of lemon, garlic, Parmesan cheese, asparagus, and peas that I found at whatsgabycooking.com.

To follow this sauce recipe, I boiled the gnocchi first and then drained them before sautéing gently in butter with the vegetables. With that tender-crisp, bright-green asparagus and sweet peas, it both looked and tasted fresh and yummy — a perfect dish to kick off a foodie-fierce spring.

1 15-ounce container whole-milk ricotta cheese

1 cup ‘00’ flour or all-purpose flour

3/4 cup freshly grated Parmesan cheese

1/4 tsp. freshly cracked black pepper

Bring a large pot of generously salted water to boil over high heat. Drain ricotta by placing 3-4 paper towels on a large plate and spreading ricotta on paper towels in an even layer. Place another layer of 3-4 paper towels on top of ricotta and press down gently to extract excess moisture. Transfer ricotta to large mixing bowl, scraping from towels with rubber spatula if needed. Add egg yolks and stir briefly to combine. Add flour, Parmesan, salt and pepper, and stir until evenly combined. Avoid over-mixing. The dough will be a bit moist and slightly sticky but holding together well. If it feels too wet, add a few tablespoons of flour. Shape dough into round disk with hands and transfer to lightly floured cutting board and sprinkle with flour. Cut dough into 8 even pie wedges and gently roll out each wedge into an even log, approximately 3/4-inch wide. Cut each log into individual bite-sized gnocchi squares. Lightly dust gnocchi with flour once more and toss to prevent sticking. Carefully transfer gnocchi to boiling water to cook. They are done when they float, very quickly. Drain gnocchi and serve immediately tossed with your favorite sauce.

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