Italian Cities: Brescia - Spinach Malfatti

 

These ricotta dumplings seem like a perfect lunch for cheese lovers like us! They do take a bit of prep but hopefully will be worth it. Malfatti means 'badly formed' in Italian so I don't feel any pressure to make perfect dumplings at least 😀

Ingredients:

250g ricotta

1/4 cup flour

basil

handful of spinach

2 cloves garlic

1 onion or 2-3 shallots

1 egg

1/2 cup grated parmesan

salt & pepper

1 carton passata

Finely chop the onion and garlic. Saute for a few minutes in some oil.

Add the spinach to the pan along with some sliced basil leaves.

When the greens have wilted, put everything from the pan in a bowl with the ricotta, egg, flour, parmesan, salt & pepper.

Mix well, the mixture should be quite thick. I added a bit more flour to mine as it was a bit moist still.

Using two tablespoons make the mixture into 'badly formed' oval dumplings. These need to be cooked for 2 minutes in a pan of boiling water. They float to the top when they're done.

Pour the passata into an oven tray and place the cooked dumplings on top in a single layer. Bake in an oven at 180 C for 15 minutes until the malfatti are starting to turn brown.

Serve with more parmesan and basil.

Initially I wasn't keen but the more I ate the more I enjoyed this dish. It was lovely and warming, with a comforting cheesy taste to the whole bowl. The dumplings were soft but with a firm outside from baking. It's such an Italian food with it's green, white and red colours. We really liked it in the end and were sad to have eaten it all.