Malfatti Recipe 465

MALFATTI (ITALIAN SPINACH RICOTTA DUMPLINGS IN NAPOLI SAUCE)

Steps:

• Saute garlic and onion: Heat oil in a small pot or large skillet over medium heat. Add garlic and onion and cook for 3 minutes until onion is softened.
• Simmer sauce: Add remaining ingredients plus the stem of basil. Bring to a simmer, then reduce stove to low and cook, stirring every now and then, for 20 minutes. It should be fairly thick rather than a loose runny sauce.
• Drain ricotta, if needed: The ricotta should be the dry and fairly crumbly type rather than wet, soft and almost spreadable. If it's wet, see Note 1 for removing excess water (wet ricotta makes Malfatti hard to shape and cook!)
• Sweat spinach: Toss spinach with 1/2 tsp salt in large colander. Leave for 20 minutes. Roll up in tea towel and squeeze tightly to remove excess liquid. Roughly chop.
• Sauté garlic, eschalot and spinach: Heat oil in a skillet over medium high heat. Add garlic and eschalot, cook for 1 minute until translucent. Add spinach and cook until just wilted. Transfer to large bowl, allow to cool.
• Malfatti mixture: Add ricotta and all remaining Malfatti ingredients into the bowl. Mix well to combine. It should be too wet to roll with hands without sticking, but still firm enough to shape into dumplings.
• Form dumplings: Using 2 dessert spoons, scoop up about 1 1/2 tablespoons of mixture then shape into a football (quenelle) using the two spoons. Place on a paper-lined tray. You should get about 24-30.
• Boil dumplings: Bring a large pot of water to the boil, then carefully put 6 dumplings in. Cook for 2 minutes, they should float to the surface. Remove with slotted spoon on to paper towel lined tray. Repeat for remaining Malfatti.
• Preheat oven to 180°C / 350°F.
• Assemble: Pour Napoli Sauce into a baking dish, then top with Malfatti. Drizzle with extra virgin olive oil.
• Bake 15 minutes or until the Malfatti has a faint blush of gold on the surface (Note 3).
• Serve! Sprinkle baked Malfatti with parmesan and basil leaves (tear large leaves). Spoon into bowls and served as-is. No starchy side is required, think of these as like gnocchi. Just add a leafy green salad with Italian Dressing or Balsamic Dressing!

MALFATTI RECIPE - (4.6/5)

Steps:

• Drain cooked spinach and squeeze out extra liquid until very dry. Combine with all ingredients, except flour. Refrigerate 1 hour. Bring pot half full of salted water to a simmer. Drop spinach cheese mixture by tablespoons into flour and roll each lightly into long logs. Cut into 1.5 inch dumplings. Drop dumplings into the gently simmering water. When they rise to the top, remove with a slotted spoon (approximately 3 to 5 minutes). In a saucepan, heat butter and sage leaves until both are browned and sage leaves are crisp. Spoon butter over malfatti and top with the crisp sage leaves. If preferred, top with more Parmesan cheese.

BADLY MADE DUMPLINGS (MALFATTI)

Steps:

• Note: I chopped the spinach finely in a food processor (only too about 5 seconds) then boiled it very briefly-about 15 seconds in boiling, salted water. Refreshed the spinach under cold running water in a fine mesh strainer and used a wooded spoon to squeeze out the excess water. The original recipes reads: Boil the spinach in well-salted water until tender, refresh under cool running water, and squeeze as dry as you can. Chop spinach finely (either in a food processor for evenly green dumplings or with a knife for a speckled appearance.).
• Mix the spinach with the ricotta and other ingredients except salt, pepper and tomato sauce to make a very soft dough.
• Season lightly with salt and pepper, but not with a heavy hand - the flavors are very subtle.
• Roll [1] golf ball-sized lump as round as you can in plenty of flour. The dough is so soft you will never manage a sphere, but that is why they are called malfatti. I used an oiled cookie scoop to shape the dough. I soon realized the less I touch the dough, the better. May take a few times preparing this recipe to get the hang of it.
• Bring a pot of salted water to a boil (the spinach water is fine if you still have it) and drop in the ball to make sure it is strong enough not to break up. If the ball doesn't break apart, roll the rest of your dough to make about a dozen dumplings. If it isn't, mix a bit more flour in, and then roll the balls.
• Cook at a gentle simmer for 10-15 minutes, counting from when they rise to the surface. You can take them out sooner if you like an oozing middle. I cooked the malfatti a solid fifteen minutes.
• Use a slotted spoon to transfer the dumplings to a serving platter.
• Two topping options and I tested both: Topping #1. Serve malfatti on a bed of warm tomato sauce and top with grated Parmesan or pecorino cheese.
• Topping #2: Or fry butter with 12 sage leaves until the leaves are crispy and the butter nutty; pour directly on top of the malfatti. Serve with amount of grated Parmesan. However, I skipped the Parmesan cheese for topping #2.

ANNA KLINGER'S MALFATTI

Steps:

• Drain the ricotta in a sieve lined with cheesecloth overnight in the refrigerator. Measure out 1 1/4 cups.
• Bring a large pot of water, heavily seasoned with salt, to a boil. Trim the chard, removing all stems and large ridges. Add half to the boiling water and cook until soft, about 3 minutes. Fish out and plunge into a bowl of ice water. Repeat.
• Squeeze out chard with your hands. On a dish towel, spread the chard in a circle the size of a pie. Roll up the towel and have someone help you twist the ends to squeeze out as much moisture as possible. Pulse in a food processor until fine. Squeeze out in a dish towel once more, until very dry. (You will have about 1 cup.)
• Melt half the butter. Mix chard and ricotta. Add melted butter, 1/4 cup flour, 1 heaping teaspoon salt and nutmeg and mix again. Drop in egg yolks and egg, season with pepper and stir again. Sprinkle a cutting board with flour. Shape into 1 ounce balls, about 1 tablespoon each, dropping them on the cutting board. You should have 25 to 30.
• Put a teaspoon of flour into a narrow wineglass. Drop in a ball and swirl until it forms an oval. Repeat. (You may need to change the glass.) You may freeze them at this point.
• Bring a pot of salted water to a boil. Drop in the malfatti and cook until they float, about 8 minutes. (If frozen, 10 minutes.) Put remaining butter in a small sauté pan and heat until bubbling, shaking the pan. When it smells nutty, add sage and cook 30 seconds. Season with salt.
• Drain malfatti and place on plates. Spoon on the butter and sage. Grate Parmesan over each plate.