Butternut Squash Soup With Chestnut Dumplings

I made Mark Bittman's version of Scott Carsberg's Butternut Squash Soup With Chestnut Dumplings.

The soup is made from cubed butternut squash, boiled with a vanilla bean.

Remove vanilla bean, attack with stick blender to finish.

The dumplings are made from a bit of the soup, grated parmesan, fresh ricotta, ground chestnuts, flour, an egg, and salt to taste.

Fresh ricotta, from Murray's. Man, this is tasty. I could eat it all day.

Scott's original recipe calls for home-candied chestnuts. These are chestnuts soaked in cognac, which I found at Fairway. The dumplings are cooked in salted boiling water and are drained and held separately from the soup until serving.

A few dumplings go into the bowl, followed by the soup. It's topped with more grated parmesan and fresh cracked pepper.