The recipe
Scrub and roughly chop 400g of carrots. Cut 2 ribs of celery into short lengths. Peel and roughly chop an onion. Put the carrots, celery and onion into a deep pan with a couple of tablespoons of olive oil and cook over a moderate heat for 10 minutes. Add a couple of bay leaves and 6 black peppercorns to the pan then crack open 6 cardamom pods, extract the seeds and grind them to a coarse powder, then add to the vegetables with a little salt and a litre of vegetable stock or water. Bring to the boil, lower the heat and simmer for 25 minutes, or until the carrots are soft. Blitz the soup in a blender or food processor till quite smooth.
Make the dumplings: put 70g of plain flour and 70g fine oatmeal in a mixing bowl with a tsp of baking powder and a couple of good pinches of salt. Using your fingertips, rub in 75g butter until the mixture resembles fine breadcrumbs. Stir in 200g ricotta. Blend 3 tsp water with 30g of herbs to a rough paste. I suggest equal amounts of parsley leaves and watercress and a generous palmful of thyme leaves. Stir the herb paste through the dumpling mix. Check the seasoning, adding black pepper and more salt as you think fit. Roll the mixture into 12 balls. Drop the dumplings into the simmering soup, cover with lid and let the dumplings steam for 15-20 minutes till cooked. Serve in shallow bowls. Enough for 4.
The trick
The dumplings need to be cooked as soon as they are made, so get them into the soup just after you have rolled them. For the deepest flavour, use large maincrop carrots for the soup rather than the small spring carrots.
The twist
You could change the herbs in the dumplings to suit what you have around. Basil works well, as does tarragon. Avoid rosemary in this instance. For a more pronounced cheese note, add parmesan – a couple of tablespoons, finely grated and added with the ricotta, should be enough.
Email Nigel at nigel.slater@observer.co.uk. Follow Nigel on Twitter @NigelSlater