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When it comes to making pasta by hand, I tend toward crudely molded lumps of dough that don’t require me to lug my hulking, 20-year-old pasta maker out of storage. This is why I usually make rustic, dumpling-adjacent noodles like nokedli and spaetzle.

Various gnocchi are another handmade pasta that I find pretty forgiving. It takes longer to cook the potato than any of the other steps do, and I almost always have the requisite flour, potato and egg on hand. They’re easy to zhuzh up, too — they’re wonderful made with semolina and cheese for sugo and slow braises, or you can coat them in two flavors of pure, distilled summer: Tomato and basil.

Since the local heirloom fatties are still pretty spendy in stores, I thought I’d pad this sauce out with roasted cherry tomatoes (the heirloom slicers in my garden are stubbornly behind schedule but my cherry tomatoes are at least trying to rally!). Roasting the cherry tomatoes first also brings a Maillard-y roundness to this sauce so it doesn’t taste too much like gazpacho. For the most part though, the secret to this recipe’s success is that it stays out of its own way.

Because I know you love the Minutiae of Pasta, it’s worth noting that the use of cheese means these gnocchi are technically gnudi. Whereas gnocchi are lovely little pillows of dough that use cooked potato (or another starchy root vegetable, like celeriac) to provide structure, the ethereal dumplings known as gnudi use a fresh cheese (usually ricotta) and usually a little Parmesan instead of the potato, which makes them lighter in texture, more like a skinless ravioli, hence the name (which sounds like “nudie”). Its other name, malfatti, means “badly formed,” which, as a person with no pasta-making skills, is honestly pretty validating. I’d usually opt to make gnocchi, but this week I had half a quart of ricotta that needed using. Serves 4-6

A note about salt: There are so many discussions online about how much salt to specify in a recipe, what kind is best for cooking (or easiest for professional recipe developers) and I just don’t care to weigh in on any of it. I use a Korean brand of sea salt because it’s fairly cheap ($8 for 5 pounds) and has a wonderful texture in my fingers, kind of like sand with a warm breath’s amount of moisture on it. Use whatever you like, just taste as you go.

Ingredients

Gnudi

1 ½ cups ricotta (part skim is fine)

1 egg

1 cup semolina flour plus more for rolling

¾ cup all-purpose flour

Salt

¼ cup finely shredded parmesan

¼ cup finely minced fresh basil

Tomato sauce

Olive oil

1 pint cherry tomatoes

Salt

1 fat garlic clove, finely grated

1 pound ripe tomatoes, any kind

1-3 tablespoons sugar (optional, as needed)

¼ cup basil leaves, left whole, torn or sliced thinly into a chiffonade

Instructions

1. Make the gnudi: Whip the ricotta and egg together until light and creamy, then stir in the semolina, flour and a few generous pinches of salt until a smooth but sticky dough forms. Knead in the parm and basil, adding a little more flour as needed to ensure the dough is sturdy enough to form into balls.
2. Line a quarter sheet pan or other shallow, rimmed dish with about ⅛ inch of semolina. Roll the dough into bite-sized balls (I ended up with 20 slightly bigger-than-bite-sized gnudi) and then roll each one in the semolina. When you’ve worked through all the dough, give the pan of semolina a little shake to even it out and return the gnudi to the pan. Drape with a light kitchen towel and set aside.
3. Make the sauce: While the gnudi are resting, preheat the oven to 425 F. Drizzle another quarter sheet pan with olive oil, add the cherry tomatoes and hit them with another drizzle of olive oil and a pinch of salt. Roast for 15 minutes, until they’ve collapsed and begun to caramelize.
4. Depending on what kind of tomatoes you’re using for the rest of the sauce, you can run them through a blender or drag them across a box grater to remove the skins. If you don’t like seeds and skins, use a food mill. Whatever you use, just turn those tomatoes to pulp.
5. Add another generous drizzle of olive oil to a large saucepan over medium heat. Saute the garlic for a few seconds, then add the roasted cherry tomatoes (oil, juice and all) and the fresh tomato pulp. Add another couple pinches of salt, bring to a bubble and reduce the heat to medium-low. The sauce will be thin, but don’t worry! Add the basil and let the sauce simmer while you cook the gnudi.
6. Cook the gnudi: Bring a large pot of salted water to a boil, then reduce the heat to a gentle simmer. Carefully lower the gnudi into the water and cook them halfway, about 3 or 4 minutes.
7. Taste the sauce and add salt and sugar as needed, depending on which kind of tomatoes you’re using. Transfer the gnudi to the sauce with a spider or slotted spoon and simmer, gently stirring and spooning sauce over the top, for another couple minutes. Serve with another drizzle of olive oil, more basil and extra parmesan.

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News Source : https://www.opb.org/article/2026/07/31/superabundant-recipe-gnudi-gnocchi-tomatoes-basil-summer/