Great to see you again! If you haven't already, please subscribe to my RSS feed, to keep updated on life in the middle of the road or follow me via Networked Blogs by clicking the button in my sidebar! If you are interested in mini-guest posting on A Moderate Life I would love to have you! Please check out my Baby Steps to a Rockin' Life Guidelines. Thanks for visiting!

Two ways of making Mark Bittman's delicious ricotta dumplings!

The Amazing Cookbook by The New York Times Food Writer and Minimalist Mark Bittman

Remember! The Tackling Bittman and His Buddies Blog Hop is open all month and now accepts any cookbook recipes so please stop by and link up a recipe or two or more and share your cookb00k favorites with us all month long!

00000000000000000

Ricotta Dumplings two ways!

Last week as you know, I went to spend a few days at my baby brother’s house and got a chance to peruse through Mark Bittman’s green book, How to Cook Everything Vegetarian. This book is certainly on my must have list as it has many different recipes from his red book, but also because I like to cook a few vegetarian meals every week because they are simply delicious, nutritious and tend to be frugal.

I had a lot of fun cooking with my sister-in-law while I was there and talking about food with my brother as well. He is the one who turned me on to Bittman in the first place and it is great to gush with a huge fan! We decided, since it was a Friday in Lent to make a vegetarian meal and these Ricotta Dumplings certainly fit the bill. I liked the idea that you could cook them either like gnocchi in boiling water for a lighter touch or pan fry them with a breaded crust. Each version turned out delicious but very different!

Ricotta Dumplings Two Ways

Makes 4-6 Servings
Page 225 Green Book

1.5 cups Ricotta Cheese
1/2 cup Milk or cream
2 cups torn or chopped day old bread or 1 cup bread crumbs
Salt
1 cup freshly grates Parmesan cheese
4 eggs
1/2 cup finely chopped reconstituted sun-dried tomatoes or roasted red peppers patted dry before chopping
1/4 cup finely chopped pitted black olives (optional)
1/4 cup chopped fresh basil leaves (optional)

Combine ricotta, milk, and bread; mix well and let soak for 30 mins or until the read is completely wet and soft (skip if using bread crumbs)

Meanwhile bring a large pot of salted water to a boil. Add cheese, eggs, tomatoes, and olives and basil if using to dough and stir well; you want a wet dough that you can still handle. If the dough is too wet to handle, add some bread crumbs.

Work in small batches, forming the dough into balls and immediately adding them to the boiling water. They’re done when they rise to the surface; remove with a slotted spoon. Serve immediately.

Pan fried Ricotta Dumplings

Flattening out the dumplings a bit ensures they cook through: Proceed with the above recipe up to Step 3; don’t bother boiling the water. Form the dough into slightly flattened balls and then coat in bread crumbs. Put extra virgin olive oil in a large skillet over medium high heat; working in batches, cook the dumplings until browned on both sides, about 5 minutes total. Delicious served with Fast Tomato Sauce (page 445)

We left out the tomatoes, peppers, olives, and basil. I also flattened out the panfried patties to look more like a chicken parm piece. We used only breadcrumbs, and had to add between 1/3-1/2 cup extra breadcrumbs because my eggs were jumbo.

These were simply delicious. We made them without any of the additions and had to add in a bit more bread crumbs to make the dough a bit more stiff. I loved the lightness of the gnocchi style dumplings with a simple tomato sauce poured over. The pan fried versions were a bit more like a fritter and reminded me slightly of fried mozzarella sticks. I will be making both of these again to share with my husband who didn’t have a chance to try them!

Remember, I highly recommend How to Cook Everything By Mark Bittman for ease of use and variety. Even the most traditional cook will get some amazing ideas from it. You can view more information on all Mark Bittman’s terrific cook books at my Stuff I Like on Amazon store, or by clicking the Amazon Banner at the bottom of this page. You can also find great information and more recipes from Mark at his website Mark Bittman, and of course, the New York Times.

Please stop by the first Thursday of every month and join the Tackling Bittman and His Buddies Recipe Hop. This hop is open all month long and you can link up any recipe you made from a cook book. You can also link up more than once, so get to cooking and trying new cookbooks! I just got Julia Child’s Mastering the Art of French Cooking for my birthday and you KNOW I am going to have to try out some of those amazing recipes. I was so thrilled I jumped up and down! My girls are awesome and they sure know what mommy wants!

A Moderate Life also recommends these posts!

Tackling Bittman: Thursday Morning Quarterbacking and Recipe Roundup! {Alas, the I Heart Cooking Clubs will no longer be cooking Mark Bittman recipes and linking them...

Tackling Bittman…and sometimes…you lose! Hi all, well, it finally happened! I am a bit sad about it for sure, but when you are tackling...

Tackling Bittman…Letting His Beef Stew! The brand spanking new Tackling Bittman Blog Hop is here! Thanks to all who linked up and I hope...

Tackling Bittman…Right in the Meatballs! All New Tackling Bittman Blog Hop! Please remember that the brand spanking new Tackling Bittman...