Ricotta Dumpling Soup

My kitchen at home has a Kitchen Aid mixer, an industrial blender, a cast iron grill, a baguette pan, a Dutch oven, a smaller Dutch oven, an immersion blender, and 500 other wonderful kitchen appliances. I still made something that can be done in a dorm kitchen. That’s how devoted I am to Fooducated’s niche.

Nah, just kidding. Niche shamiche. I made this soup the super easy way because I was being super lazy. It requires no more than 30 minutes of work* and it hits the spot. The ricotta dumplings are a lot like matzo bowls. Each bite wont deliver a cacophony of interesting and complicated flavors but you will love its simple and familiar deliciousness.

Ingredients

• 3 cups of ricotta cheese
• 1 cup of shaved parmesan cheese
• 1 egg
• About 2/3 cup all purpose flour
• 32 ounces of chicken stock
• 1/2 cup of white wine (optional)
• 2 carrots, roughly chopped into smallish pieces
• 1 onion, roughly chopped into smallish pieces
• 3 garlic cloves, minced
• 1/2 fennel bulb, diced
• Fresh thyme
• Fresh oregano
• Salt and Pepper

Steps

1. In a large bowl, mix the ricotta cheese, parmesan, egg, and salt and pepper to taste. Add a spoonful of the flour. Stir. Keep adding one spoonful at a time until the dough starts to come together. It should be drier than the ricotta is on its own but sticky enough that you cannot roll it out.
2. Bring a pot of water to a soft boil and add a lot of salt.**
3. Meanwhile, in a different pot with a heavy bottom, over medium-high heat, saute the onion, carrots, and fennel until they are light gold. 
4. Add the garlic and saute another minute.
5. Deglaze the pan with the white wine if you’re using it. Let it cook until it reduces to half of its original volume.
6. Add the chicken stock and the fresh herbs.
7. Bring to a soft boil.
8. In the pot of boiling water, add the ricotta dumplings. Use two spoons to form the dumplings and drop them into the pot. Don’t worry about it if they aren’t beautiful. When they float to the top, spoon them out and transfer them into the pot of chicken stock.
9. Enjoy!

*If you’re not being lazy, step up the soup’s game by making your own ricotta and your own chicken stock.

**You can probably cook the dumplings directly in the chicken stock, which would make this recipe even more dormable, but I didn’t because my heavy pot is too wide so the stock wasn’t deep enough.