4 lb spinach
1 salt
2 cup ricotta
2 eggs
1 1/2 cup freshly grated parmesan
1 pepper
1 freshly grated nutmeg
1 flour
6 tbsp butter, melted
Directions
Wash the spinach and remove the stems. In a large pan with the
lid on, steam the leaves with a little salt in the water that clings
to them, turning them over, until they crumple. Strain and squeeze
every bit of water out with your hands: this is all-important and is
the secret of success (otherwise the dumplings would fall apart).
Finely chop the leaves
Mash the ricotta and stir in the eggs, half the parmesan, salt,
pepper, nutmeg and spinach. Work very well, shape into balls the
size of a walnut and roll in flour.
Fill a large saucepan halfway with water, bring to the boil and
very carefully drop in the dumplings. Keep the water barely simmering
until the rise to the surface - they do so very quickly.
Lift them out very carefully with a slotted spoon and serve very
hot with melted butter and the remaining parmesan.
Servings: 1 servings
Malfatti Cheese & Spinach Dumplings Recipe brought to you by Recipe Ideas
Categories: Bread; Breads; Cheese; Spinach; Vegetable
The History of Recipes
We can follow the history of `recipes` way back into antiquity, certainly as far back into history as the Egypt of the Pharoahs, and maybe even further. However, mostly, these ancient recipes were just basic pictorial, hieroglyphic or cunieform instructions for meal preparation.
In fact, the most ancient recipe found, according to Professor Solomon Katz, is a series of ancient tablets in the Sumerian language which describe the making of bread which is then used to make a drink, quite possibly a form of beer as it is recorded as having made people feel exhilarated. Later on, in The time of the roman empire 25BC a roman called Apicius created a number of documents showing how to cook the recipes prepared by his fellow Romans. In his scrolls, Apicius tells us how the roman meals were split into hors d`oeuvres, main course and dessert, something that is very familiar to us today. He also describes how the Roman chefs used many different spices, including a few that will be familiar to modern chefs such as basil, rue and asafoetida. Later, we find a couple of books which appeared in the 14th Century - a recipe book called `Forme of Cury`, and another, similary called `Curye on Inglish`. Although the titles sound familiar, these books are not about the curry that appears on menues today, but instead accounts of the types of meals enjoyed by the rich and wealthy people of those days. Later, in the fifteenth century, people returning from the crusades brought us many new foods and herbs from the East, such as coriander, basil and rosemary. The introduction of these new herbs and spices caused an increase in publications on food, some of which are now in private libraries. The arrival of television gave us celebrity TV chefs and the recipe books that accompanied them. And that neatly brings us to the present day and the internet revolution, allowing us all to search through thousands of recipes like those on this recipe site. |
We hope you enjoy this Malfatti Cheese & Spinach Dumplings recipe.
