Gnudi are ricotta dumplings that have been tricked into holding their shape without a pasta shell, which means the technique has to do what the dough usually does. Emily Oyer, chef at the Alpin Room in Snowmass, Colorado, makes gnudi at altitude — where water boils at 203°F instead of 212°F, and where every timing assumption in every Italian cookbook needs recalibration.
Oyer's gnudi start with ricotta that has been draining in cheesecloth in a refrigerator for twenty-four hours — the drier the ricotta, the less flour needed to bind it, and the less flour, the lighter the dumpling. She adds semolina flour rather than 00, which creates a more stable gel during cooking. The gnudi are formed cold and rested in semolina for an hour before cooking, which creates a thin protective skin. At Snowmass altitude, she adds ninety seconds to the standard cook time and pulls them before they float.
The Alpin Room is a mountain restaurant that cooks like a city restaurant that knows what it's doing. Bobby's gnudi, made at sea-level assumptions, did not account for what it means to actually cook at elevation.
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