Silvana's Gluten-Free Spinach Gnocchi Parmesan

I first fell in love with Gnocchi while visiting Boston.  Knowing how much I love potatoes I was sure a potato pasta just had to be amazing!  Well, I was right.  Gnocchi is a small dumpling pasta usually made with potatoes, flour, eggs, and cheese.  Until just recently I had not been able to find a gluten-free version of the pasta, but thanks to Silvana's Kitchen, I can now make my own.  Her original recipe is as follows, but I have tweaked a few things.

Silvan's Original Recipe

Here are the ingredients that I used:
1¼ cups water
½ cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, cut into pieces
1 teaspoon salt
¼ teaspoon nutmeg
1/2 cup brown rice flour
1/3 cup millet flour
1/3 cup white bean flour
2 teaspoons dijon mustard (yes...this is necessary!)
2 tsp. italian seasoning
1/2-1 tsp. cayenne pepper
3/4 cup finely chopped fresh spinach
1/2 cup grated parmesan cheese
3 large eggs, at room temperature
1 cup ricotta cheese
1 1/4 cup mozzarella cheese
2 cups tomato puree
Handful of basil, torn


Gnocchi:
Blend together the three flours and parmesan; set aside.  Be sure to sift the flours so that your pasta is not too dense.  In a small pot heat 1 cup water, butter, nutmeg, and salt until it comes to a boil and then reduce to low heat.  Add the flour mixture to the liquid mixture slowly so that it mixes in evenly.  Take the pasta off heat and add the dijon mustard and chopped spinach.  Beat in the eggs with a hand-held electric mixer (one by one) into the pasta mixture.  Place the pasta into a ziplock bag and place in the refrigerator.  Let sit a few hours.  After the pasta mixture has cooled and hardened cut off one corner on the end of the ziplock bag.  The cut should be the size of a nickel when rounded.  Boil a large pot of salted water on the stove and drop one-inch strips out the corner of the bag until all pasta mixture is in the pot.  Gnocchi should rise to the top.  Let it simmer at the top for about 3 minutes and then ladle out onto a towel or paper towels.  


Layering:
Mix together the ricotta cheese, 3/4 cup mozzarella cheese, 1/4 cup water, italian seasoning, cayenne pepper in a separate bowl.  In the bottom of a baking dish layer one cup of the tomato sauce.  Then place 1/2 cooked gnocchi on top of the sauce with the ricotta mixture following.  Place a few basil pieces on top of the ricotta and then add on one more layer of each.  Finish the dish off by sprinkling the remaining 1/2 cup mozzarella cheese on the top.  Cook at 400 degrees for about 30 minutes.  This dish is amazing! :)