When you have a newborn baby, there’s little time in a day to prepare meals.  So you might notice that most of the posts about food recently are quick/easy type food, and they are generally things that can be frozen or eaten over multiple meals.

If you’re wondering when I have the time to search for recipes, here’s my secret: I have the Epicurious app on my iPod, and I go through it when I’m nursing Savanna.  That means I have about 3 1/2 hours a day of time to look at recipes (and create grocery lists, write out to-do lists, read the news, check Facebook, read my favorite blogs, check Flipboard, and pin up a storm on Pinterest).  I am becoming quite good at multi-tasking!

Today I made this ricotta gnocchi from Epicurious.  Most gnocchi dishes are full of carbs.  This one uses ricotta as a base, so I figured some protein is better than all carbs.  It’s easy enough that I was willing to give it a try.  Cliff and I both liked it.

The entire batch is enough to feed 5 or 6 people.  If you’re making it for 2 people, I would freeze some of the gnocchi for another day.

Ingredients

• 2 cups whole-milk ricotta (1 pound)
• 2 large eggs, lightly beaten
• 1 1/2 cups grated Parmigiano-Reggiano (3 ounces), divided
• 1/4 teaspoon grated nutmeg
• 1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
• 1/2 stick unsalted butter
• 1 (2-inch) rosemary sprig

Direction

Stir together ricotta, eggs, 1 cup cheese, nutmeg, and 1/4 teaspoon each of salt and pepper. Add flour, stirring to form a soft, wet dough.

Shape dough on a well-floured surface with lightly floured hands into 2 (1-inch-thick) ropes. Cut crosswise into 1-inch pieces with a lightly floured knife. Put in 1 layer on a lightly floured parchment-lined baking sheet.

Cook gnocchi in 2 batches in a pasta pot of boiling salted water (3 tablespoons salt for 6 quarts water), adding a few at a time to pot and stirring occasionally, until cooked through (cut one in half to check), 3 to 4 minutes per batch. Lift out with a slotted spoon and drain in colander.

Meanwhile, cook butter with rosemary in a 12-inch heavy skillet over medium-low heat until golden brown, about 5 minutes.

Toss gnocchi with brown butter in skillet and sprinkle with remaining 1/2 cup cheese. Season with salt.