Crispy gnocchi and beef on whipped miso ricotta

Panzanella logic, more or less, if panzanella grew up and got a little mean. A cool savory floor, something crunchy, something charred and enough acid to keep it all honest. Build the ricotta first so it is waiting when everything else comes screaming out of the pan.

1. Whip the ricotta with the miso, 1 tablespoon of the olive oil and a splash of water until loose and spreadable, a minute of vigorous stirring or a quick buzz with a hand blender. Taste. It should be savory and a touch salty before anything else touches it. Spread it across the base of a large platter and streak a little chili crisp over the top.
2. Heat a large cast-iron or nonstick skillet over medium high with 1 tablespoon olive oil. Lay the sprouts cut side down in one layer and leave them entirely alone for 4 to 5 minutes, until the flat faces go properly black, then toss and give them 3 to 4 minutes more until the loose leaves crisp and the centers give. Season and lift them out. Sprouts really were nastier a generation ago and it is not nostalgia talking: Dutch growers tracked down the compounds behind the bitterness in the 1990s and bred them back down, which is why the vegetable your mother boiled to death is now the one worth charring.
3. Brown the beef with the garlic in the same pan, dry, over medium high, breaking it into craggy bits until deeply browned with crisp edges. Stir in the chili crisp, soy sauce and half the balsamic and let it glaze the meat for a minute. Lift the beef out with a slotted spoon and leave the fat behind. That fat is the entire point of the next step, so don't you dare pour it off.
4. Crisp the gnocchi in that rendered fat, a splash of neutral oil only if the pan looks dry, 8 to 10 minutes, tossing every 2, until golden all over. If your skillet is under 12 inches, do them in two batches. Crowded gnocchi steam, and steamed gnocchi are a pale and sorry business. Let them sit in the pan 5 minutes off the heat, they crisp further as they cool.
5. Fold the beef and sprouts back through the gnocchi with the rest of the balsamic, then pile it all onto the miso ricotta so every forkful drags a little floor with it. Scatter the scallions, sesame seeds and more chili crisp over the top. Squeeze the lime over the lot as it goes to the table and not a minute sooner, because acid goes flat and dull the moment it meets a hot plate.

A word on the vinegar. Chinkiang black vinegar is the original here and still the best of it, malty and smoky and barely sweet, but it has become a nuisance to find. Balsamic cut with a splash of water gets you close on character, which is what the quantity above assumes. Rice vinegar works too and lands brighter and thinner, which flatters the sprouts rather more than it does the beef.

Brown the beef in batches so it sears instead of steaming, then toss three packages of gnocchi with a little of the rendered fat and some oil across two large sheet pans. Spread them in a single layer and roast at 450°F for 20 to 25 minutes, tossing once and swapping the pans between racks halfway, until deep golden. Roast the sprouts cut side down on their own pan at the same heat for 20 to 25 minutes, until the faces blacken and the loose leaves go to crisps. Whip a double batch of the ricotta, spread it over a platter or two and pile everything on at the last minute so the gnocchi stay crisp.