Soft, pillowy, cheesy “lumps” swimming in basil infused marinara. I say “lumps”, because Mark Bittman (whose recipe follows) taught me that in colloquial Italian gnoccho means lump!

I used Bittman’s New York Times recipe, which has a video you can watch to perfect the procedure. The whole family–not just my father–enjoyed this dish. The article on ricotta gnocchi that goes along with the recipe is a good read too. And if you read Italian, HERE is an interesting post on the ancient tradition of gnocchi making.

I wanted to keep the dish moist, so I skipped the recommendation to serve the gnocchi browned in sage butter. Instead, I used another New York Times recipe, one for Marinara Sauce. The two changes that I made were to use leaves of basil instead of a sprig and to purée the sauce once it was done.  –By the way, once you make this sauce, you’ll have a hard time ever going back to supermarket sauce (and it’s cheaper!).

But, really, any sauce that you like would be good! Marinara, tomato cream sauce, cheese Bechamel, and so on.

I really like to float ricotta gnocchi in Zucchini Basil Soup, too.