Gnudi, an Italian dumpling, has been showing up everywhere lately. One variety is spinach ricotta gnudi.

You know how a word you’ve just learned suddenly begins popping up everywhere? Well, gnudi have been doing virtually the same lately, showing up on menus in restaurants I’ve visited and in cookbooks I’ve been reading.

But just as that new vocabulary word was always out there but you hadn’t noticed it, gnudi have been around for centuries. And I had known about them for years. I just hadn’t made them or even tasted them.

Gnudi are little ricotta dumplings, best thought of as ravioli filling without the pasta enveloping it. The Italian word “gnudi” means “nudes,” so it’s like nude ravioli. (They are sometimes called ravioli gnudi.) Or ravioli guts. They are similar to gnocchi but much lighter and much easier to make.

I got around to trying gnudi (pronounced NYOO-dee) a couple of months ago. With some super-fresh ricotta — essential for the best flavor — languishing in the fridge, I decided to take the plunge, following a recipe from “The Geometry of Pasta” by Caz Hildebrand and Jacob Kenedy.

The method is simple: Mix ricotta, flour, egg, grated cheese and seasonings together. (“The Geometry of Pasta” calls for breadcrumbs to bind the dumplings, instead of flour.) Mold into small balls with your hands. Cook in boiling water.

The funny thing is that until finding that recipe, I had scoured more than a dozen Italian cookbooks with no luck. I began to think that gnudi might be a relatively new variation on ravioli.

Instead, I found that they date from at least the late 1200s, according to Oretta Zanini de Vita in “Encyclopedia of Pasta,” and predate stuffed pasta.

It’s easy to see why gnudi stuck around. They came out tender and delicious. And although forming the little guys was time-consuming (a small spring-loaded cookie scoop, 1 or 2 teaspoon measure, helps), the gnudi were so easy to make. Much less tricky than gnocchi or ravioli.

Since that initial batch, I have been making gnudi frequently, varying the filling with spinach (a classic ingredient) and butternut squash. They’ve become a house favorite.

If you’ve shied away from making homemade ravioli, what with all the work of forming the pasta dough, rolling, filling and cutting, maybe this project is your warm-up. Or just make gnudi instead and forget the pasta.