Instructions
Boil the potatoes in their skins until tender, peel hot, and rice onto the board. Cool to warm.
30 minKnead the riced potato with flour and salt into a soft, barely tacky dough, like gnocchi dough that decided to behave. Rest 30 minutes under a bowl.
35 minMix the filling: ricotta, raisins, herbs, cocoa, cinnamon, sugar, and lemon zest. It should taste like a question you want to keep answering.
8 minRoll the dough 2 to 3 mm thin on a floured board and cut 7 cm rounds. Fill each with a teaspoon of ripieno, fold to a half-moon, and crimp the edge into little pleats.
30 minPoach the cjarsons in gently simmering salted water until they float and feel set, 4 to 5 minutes.
5 minMelt the butter until it just browns and smells of hazelnuts.
4 minPlate the cjarsons, spoon over the brown butter, and bury them under grated smoked ricotta and a breath of cinnamon. Serve immediately.
Chef's Tips
- Smoked ricotta is the signature: Without ricotta affumicata the dish loses its mountain accent. A hard smoked scamorza, finely grated, is the least-wrong substitute.
- Keep the dough soft: Add flour only until the dough stops sticking to your palms; an overfloured dough makes armor instead of pasta.
- Some valleys fill cjarsons with potato and mint, others with dried pear and spinach. Once you trust the dough, the filling is yours to inherit and bend.
