How to make
The fresh milk is poured into a saucepan with a thick bottom and placed on a moderate heat to boil together with the butter, salt and grated nutmeg. As soon as it begins to rise, reduce the temperature and add the semolina flour in a thin stream, stirring continuously and vigorously to avoid the formation of lumps while it thickens.
This happens very quickly, so you need a little extra care so it doesn't burn on the stove. Remove from the heat, cool briefly and add the yolks one by one, stirring well. Add the grana padano and mix perfectly.
The mixture is heavy, sticky, so it is good to work with a thick wooden spoon or silicone spatula. This is the point where you can optionally add finely chopped ham, but I didn't.
The mixture is poured onto a mat or onto baking paper and allowed to cool a little more. Then it is covered with another paper or worked with a silicone rolling pin, so it will not stick.
The dough is rolled out to a thickness of 0.4″ (1 cm). With a metal mold or another suitable one, cut out circles of about 2.8″ (7 cm), dipping the mold in a little flour each time. They don't need to be cut perfectl. The scraps are collected and re-rolled and cut into circles again.
Grease a ceramic mold well. The circles are arranged, slightly overlapping each other. Sprinkle some more grana padano on top and add small pieces of butter, almost to each cut circle of dough.
Bake at 370°F (190°C) for about 20-30 minutes or until a nice golden brown.
Tomato sauce
Heat the olive oil in a saucepan, add a whole clove of garlic, season with salt, leave on the stove for 1-2 minutes to flavor the olive oil, and pour in the tomato sauce and a few whole leaves of basil. Let it simmer on low heat with a lid on.
Serve the gnocchi by first pouring two or three spoonfuls of tomato sauce into the plate, sprinkling 2-3 drizzles of olive oil and placing the baked gnocchi.
The recipe is for gnocchi alaminute. Basically, gnocchi is made with flour and an addition of grated boiled potatoes, after the dough is formed, it is cut into small pieces and passed through a special ribbed gnocchi board, which I do not currently have, or each piece is passed through an inverted fork and they are boiled in hot water, then they are drained and Parmigiano, mozzarella, tomato sauce are also added and baked in the oven.
For me, this is a slow option, so I offer a recipe for a faster, easier way and no less delicious.
