Malfatti, Northern Italian Spinach Dumplings

Wash and clean the spinach and knock it out lightly. Put dripping wet in a saucepan and let collapse over medium heat. Remove from heat and let cool down.

Peel the onion and garlic, dice finely and sauté in the butter until translucent. In the meantime, squeeze the cooled spinach well, chop it finely and add to the onion and garlic. Warm it up briefly and then remove it from the stove. Let cool down.

Mix the ricotta or well-drained low-fat quark with the egg until creamy. Stir in the grated Parmesan and the cooled spinach mixture. Now season well with the above spices, but be careful when seasoning with salt, because the Parmesan also contains salt. Nutmeg doesn't have to, can.

Now the flour is added spoon by spoon. Stir vigorously after each spoon and test the consistency. The texture of the mass should be similar to that of a meatball mass. So smooth, supple and easily malleable. It must not fall apart when simmering. The amount of flour depends on the size of the egg used and the residual moisture of the quark and spinach. To be on the safe side, make a trial cam first. Then decide whether the amount of flour is sufficient.

Heat a large saucepan with plenty of well-salted water. When it bubbles, cut off the dough with 2 tablespoons of the appropriate size and let them slide into the water. When they have risen to the surface, they can be lifted out with the slotted spoon and temporarily stored on a plate. They don't have to look exactly, because the Italian word "Malfatti" actually means "failed" ......: -) ....... they just have to taste ...

You can serve it - like me here - as a side dish, but you can also put it straight away in a baking dish, pour melted butter over it and sprinkle with plenty of Parmesan. Then bake in the oven for 8-10 minutes at 170 °. There you have a very tasty, meatless main course. A sage butter or a sage foam also taste very good. Served with a smaller salad and sprinkled with grated pecorino, but also a great starter in smaller portions.

Peel the onion and garlic, cut into large cubes. Wash and core the chillies and cut into large cubes. Put everything in a larger pan and simmer in the olive oil until translucent.

Cut the Salsiccia's into slices and halve them again. Add to the onion in the pan and fry everything vigorously until the sausage has taken on color. Roughly cut and add the peeled tomatoes and let everything simmer briefly. First, keep the tomato juice back, only pour in gradually if the sauce is too dry. But it can't be "soupy" either.

Now add all the dry herbs, add sugar, pepper, salt and season to taste. Possibly add a little more tomato juice. It should taste piquant and spicy. Just before serving, stir in the freshly chopped basil leaves.

Heat the malfatti in a pan with butter, swirling it from time to time, arrange on the plate with the sauce and sprinkle coarsely planed Parmesan or pecorino over it ............. now just let it taste ........