How do I love thee, dumplings? Let me count the ways: there’s Italian gnocchi, Polish pierogi, Cantonese dim sum, Asian wontons and gyoza, Tuscan gnudi, Russian pelmeni and German knödel. Oh, and Tibetan momos, caraway dumplings in Hungarian goulash, Italian malfatti and ravioli… However they come, I find dumplings irresistibly soothing all year round. For today, though, to mark the date, I might have wontons for breakfast, pierogi for lunch and gnudi to round it all off. Happy Valentine’s Day.
Gnudi with chilli and crisp lemonskin
These are light and bursting with flavour. Eat the strips of lemon rind, too – they are fresh and delicious. All you need with it is a peppery wild rocket salad. Serves four as a starter.
30g pine nuts, toasted
250g ricotta
2 eggs, plus 1 extra egg white
½ tsp finely grated nutmeg
¼ tsp baking powder
70g parmesan, finely grated
100g fine semolina
Salt and ground white pepper
40g unsalted butter
1½ tbsp olive oil
Shaved zest of 1 whole lemon, plus 1tsp lemon juice
3 large cloves garlic, thinly sliced
1½ tbsp sage leaves, shredded
½ tsp Aleppo chilli flakes (or ¼ tsp regular chilli flakes)
Put the pine nuts in the small bowl of a food processor, blitz until fine and transfer to a medium bowl.
Spoon the ricotta into the middle of a clean tea towel, draw up the edges of the towel to enclose the cheese, and squeeze out as much liquid as possible. Add the ricotta to the pine nuts, then mix in the whole eggs, egg white, nutmeg, baking powder, 50g of parmesan, half the semolina, half a teaspoon of salt and a quarter-teaspoon of pepper. Cover and put in the fridge for an hour.
Using two teaspoons, shape walnut-sized pieces of the chilled mix into rough balls, then, one at atime, gently toss them in the remaining semolina – you should end up with 26-28 balls. Place on atray or large plate, and chill for 10minutes, to firm up.
Fill a large pan with water, add atablespoon of salt and bring to arapid boil. Turn down the heat to medium-high, so the water is at asteady simmer, then drop in half the gnudi and wait for them to rise to the surface – about a minute or two. Once they’ve bobbed up, simmer for three minutes more. Use a slotted spoon to scoop them out and transfer to a plate. Repeat with the remaining gnudi.
Put a very large sauté pan on amedium-high heat. Add the butter and oil and, once the butter is frothing, the lemon zest, garlic and sage. Cook for two to four minutes, stirring continuously, until the garlic starts to turn golden and the lemon skin crisps up a bit. Stir in the chilli, lemon juice and gnudi, and cook for 90 seconds, just to warm through; stir very gently, otherwise the dumplings will break up. Serve in shallow bowls, making sure each portion gets plenty of skin and garlic, and top with a sprinkle of parmesan.
Prawn wontons
These take a bit of time to make, butyou can prepare them well in advance and store, covered, inthe fridge or freezer, all ready to cook. You don’t need to rush when making them, but do keep both the wrappers and the filled wontons under a clean damp tea towel, so they don’t dry out. Thanks to HelenGoh for this one. Makes about 50 wontons, to serve four to six.
200g raw prawns, finely chopped byhand
3cm piece ginger, peeled and finely chopped
4 garlic chives, finely chopped (or 4spring onions, finely chopped)
50g bamboo shoots, well rinsed and cutinto 1cm-long matchsticks
¾ tsp cornflour
¼ tsp caster sugar
¾ tsp sesame oil
¾ tsp oyster sauce
½ tspShaoxing rice wine
1 large egg, separated
Salt and white pepper
50 squarewontonwrappers
½ tsp sunflower oil
For the dipping sauce
3 tbsp light soy sauce
1 tbsp Shaoxing rice wine
In a medium bowl, mix the first nine ingredients with the egg white, half a teaspoon of salt and a quarter-teaspoon of white pepper.
Making one dumpling at a time, put a level teaspoon of the mix in the centre of a wonton wrapper. Brush the two adjoining edges lightly with egg yolk, then fold them over on to the unbrushed edges, to form a triangle. Seal the edges well, pressing out any air from around thefilling as you do so, and lay the wonton on a clean work surface with the top of the triangle pointing away from you. Roll the filled pocket towards the tip, leaving about 3mm of the tip visible, then draw the twolong edges of the triangle up towards you and pinch them together (the wontons should end up looking a bit like tortellini). Place on a plate and cover with a damp cloth. Repeat with the remaining filling and wonton wrappers, remembering to cover the wrappers and filled wontons as you go.
In a small bowl, stir together the soy and rice wine. Bring a large pan of water to a boil, then gently drop in a third to a half of the wontons (depending on the size of your pot, you should be able to do between 15and 25 at a time) and boil for four minutes. Transfer to a sieve with aslotted spoon, stir through a few drops of sunflower oil and then cookthe rest of the wantons. Serve at once, with the sauce alongside, for dipping or dribbling on top.
Pierogi
These can be prepared in advance and chilled until you want to cook. Iowe Madga Lockey thanks for this brilliant, foolproof recipe. Serves six.
250g plain flour, plus plenty extra fordusting
1 egg
1½ tsp olive oil
Salt and ground white pepper
1 large Desiree potato (or other fairly waxy variety), peeled and cut into 2-3cm chunks (260g net weight)
60g unsalted butter
1 medium onion, peeled and finelychopped
2 medium celery sticks, cut into 5mmdice
1 tsp celery seeds (optional)
160g bacon lardons cut into 1.5cm cubes
300g soured cream
2 tbsp finely chopped chives
Put the flour, egg, oil and half ateaspoon of salt in a food processor. Blitz to combine and, with the motor still running, slowly pour in 60-70ml of hand-hot water, until thepastry comes together in aball. Transfer to a lightly floured surface and knead for 10 minutes, until smooth and elastic, dusting with flour as needed. Cut the dough in half, to see if there are any air bubbles inside; if there are, knead for a few minutes more, until smooth. Wrap tightly with clingfilm and rest in the fridge for an hour.
Fill a small saucepan with plenty of salted water. Bring to a boil, add the potato and cook for 10-12 minutes, until soft. Drain and set aside for five minutes, to dry. Transfer to a large bowl, add aquarter teaspoon each of salt and pepper, and mash smooth.
Put a large sauté pan on amedium-high heat with half the butter. Once frothing, add the onion, celery, celery seeds (if using) and bacon, and cook for 16-18 minutes, stirring a few times, until golden-brown and crisp. Tip into the potato bowl and mix together well.
On a well-floured work surface, roll out the pastry into a large, thin circle 50cm in diameter and 1mm thick. (While rolling, you’ll need to keep turning over the pastry and dusting with flour so it doesn’t stick.) Use a round 8cm-wide pastry cutter to cut out 30 circles (if need be, roll out the scraps of pastry asecond time to make up the 30).
Put a heaped teaspoon of filling inthe centre of each circle and brush all around the edge with water. Fold one half over the other, to form asemi-circle, and press the edges together firmly to seal (the seal should be 1cm wide). Place the pierogi on a large, flour-dusted tray.
Bring a large pan of salted water to a boil, turn down the heat to medium-high and add a third of the dumplings. Simmer for five minutes, then transfer to a large plate using aslotted spoon. Repeat with the remaining two batches of pierogi.
Put a large sauté pan on a high heat with 10g of butter. Once frothing, add a third of the dumplings and fry for a minute, turning halfway through, until lightly golden and just slightly crisp. Remove from thepan and set aside somewhere warm while you repeat with the remaining dumplings, adding more butter as you go. Serve at once, witha generous spoon of soured cream alongside or on top and asprinkling ofchives.
Yotam Ottolenghi is chef/patron of Ottolenghi and Nopi in London.
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