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Chicken Soup with Ricotta Dumplings
Polpette di ricotta, or ricotta “meatballs” (named only for their round shape, not because they contain meat), hail from Calabria in southern Italy. In the humble soup known as polpette di ricotta in brodo, the “meatballs” are gently poached in hot broth, where they turn into light, tender dumplings. The mildness of the ricotta allows the savory, pleasantly funky flavor of pecorino to come to the fore. For our version, we enhance store-bought chicken broth by simmering in a few aromatic vegetables plus bone-in chicken thighs that later provide shredded meat to make the soup more substantial. The dumpling mixture needs at least an hour or up to 24 to chill and hydrate before shaping, and the formed dumplings require at least 30 minutes in the refrigerator to firm up before cooking, so plan accordingly. If convenient, the broth can be made in advance and refrigerated in an airtight container for up to three days, but if making ahead, it’s best to wait to shred the chicken until just before serving.
4
Servings
Tip
*Don’t bother finely chopping the vegetables* for the broth. Cut them into chunks that will soften and release flavor into the liquid but that still are large enough to easily scoop out with a slotted spoon. When removing the dumplings from the pot after poaching, be sure to handle them gently as they’re quite delicate.
2 hours
1 hour active, plus chilling
Ingredients
-
3
slices (5 ounces) hearty white sandwich bread, crusts removed, torn into pieces
-
1½
ounces (without rind) pecorino Romano cheese, cut into rough ½-inch chunks, plus finely grated pecorino Romano cheese, to serve
Directions
-
01In a food processor, combine the bread and pecorino chunks; process until finely ground, about 30 seconds. Add the ricotta, egg yolks, nutmeg, and ½ teaspoon each salt and pepper; process until smooth, about 1 minute, scraping the bowl as needed. Transfer to a medium bowl, cover and refrigerate for at least 1 hour or up to 24 hours.
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October 25, 2022
Delicious comfort food
I made it as written but it seemed wrong to pitch the celery and carrots after the broth was made so I chopped some carrots into very small pieces and kept them in the soup; I'm glad I did both for their color and the sweet yumminess of the carrots. I cooked the dumplings completely and then removed them (was careful not to boil them per the recipe!); for each serving I added them to the broth as it was reheated and this worked wonderfully. A keeper.
June 18, 2022
Delicious and company worthy
This was delicious but I needed to make it a little less fussy at the end and it needed an extra 1.5 tsp of salt. Made according to recipe except I used Asiago cheese and a garlic cheese loaf for the dumplings, which made them very flavorful. I used a cookie scoop which gave me 18 meatballs. Since there are only two of us, I cooked six in the broth each night, which worked well. . After I shredded the chicken, I left it in the broth. This was maybe the best chicken broth I’ve ever made, but next time I would remove the skin from the thighs to decrease the fat in it. If I were making this for company, I would make the broth and the dumplings and shred the chicken the day before.
October 14, 2022
Subtle Flavors Make a Nice Change
These turned out as pictured, but I had to poach them much longer than the recipe called for (I live at mile-high altitude) to get them past the gluey, sticky stage. I tossed a crushed garlic clove and some thinly sliced carrot and celery in to the broth as it reheated before I poached the dumplings. Everything was better the next day; the cooked dumplings held together overnight. You may want to up the salt in the dumpling dough a bit.
October 12, 2022
Delicious Flavor, but the dumplings didn’t work
I followed the recipe to the letter. The broth, the dumplings, the end result were all delicious. But the dumplings were messy and never really held together, even with extreme care taken with them. I think the recipe needs to be reworked.
November 5, 2022
Ricotta Dumpling Soup with Chicken and Vegetables
I couldn't bring myself to toss perfectly good vegetables so I've saved them in the pot and just added a bit more chicken broth....I am waiting the 30 minutes on the dumplings now. Smells wonderful, fun to make...just happened to have everything at hand. Can't wait to finish it. I'm going to go ahead and give it 5 stars. Perfect on a football afternoon. Thank you.
I made this for dinner. The only thing I have changed, I kept the carrots then cut them into smaller pieces then added back to soup. The broth and chicken were very good. However, no one in my family including me liked the Ricotta balls. They were soft and sort of weird. Everyone who eat the soup said, "the balls taste weird"
I have used BelGioioso Ricotta (Con Latte /Whole Milk -its really tasty).
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Yikes my dumplings fell apart.