Daring Cooks: Tofu Ricotta Gnocchi

The Daring Bakers have expanded to encompass Daring Cooking too! For the inaugural challenge the founders of the Daring Bakers; Lis and Yvonne, chose Ricotta Gnocci from Judy Rogers’s the Zuni Cafe Cookbook. 

Usually gnocchi is made from potato so a ricotta based gnocchi provided the classic Daring twist and challenge. 

I choose to go vegan for this first challenge; as diary increasingly does not agree with me, making my gnocchi from tofu ricotta loosely based on the Veganomicon recipe.To make the gnocchi I needed fresh tofu, as I have a soy milk machine, making fresh tofu is a breeze (I made it once without a machine which was time consuming and resulted in lots and lots of washing up). My standard when cooking with tofu is “press and marinade, press and marinade” otherwise you get a tasteless, soggy mass that gives tofu its undeserved but understandable reputation for being bland and unmemorable.

Tofu Ricotta (serves 2) 

1 block tofu (from one batch of soymilk in my machine)
1/4 cup vital wheat gluten
2 cloves garlic (finely chopped)
1 tbs fresh oregano (finely chopped)
Salt and pepper

Press the tofu and mix all the ingredients together well and shape into balls pressing well, chill for at least 30 mins before cooking. 

To cook add to a pan of boiling water, when the gnocci are cooked they will float to the surface.

I served these with a warm lemon, caper and olive oil dressing on wilted spinach.

 Notes

I will be making these again, as they were very easy to make, and utter delicious, tasty and filling without being too heavy.   when I make them again I shall mix them in the food processor and make one spinach batch and one sun dried tomato batch, which I think will look very pretty.