well done: malfatti

i've got a passion for italian food, especially the playful kind, with either playful names or playful preparation methods. you might have seen my attempt at baking cantucci some time ago (here). yeah well, they sort of turned out to be rather 'brutti ma buoni', in the end. but since i equally love brutti ma buoni and cantucci, no harm was done.

this week, i wanted to treat a special someone to one of my favorite italian dishes called malfatti. 'malfatti' means 'poorly done'. isn't that another cute name for a dish? mal fatto. it implies that they might not be pretty, but all the more tasty for that. they're little green chunks loaded with love.

malfatti are typically made with fresh spinach. further comments: since i prepare them without recipe and instead rely on my feeling i often tend to prepare too much. this time, i ended up preparing malfatti for an entire italian family (and not a small one). once cooked, however, they can easily be kept in the fridge for some time. 

see how to prepare malfatti the way my mom taught me to prepare them. first, you will need a lot of spinach (i took one kilo), herbs to your liking (i used basil, parsley and oregano), 3-4 eggs, 300 gramms ricotta, one onion, 1-2 garlic cloves, a little grated parmigiano, some all purpose flour and a little semolino. plus salt, pepper and nutmeg to season. to heat them you will need olive oil, butter and sage.

first, wash the spinach in cold water, and add it, still all damp, to a big pan. quickly heat it up and let the spinach 'fall together'. this will just take a minute or two. so don't over-heat the babies!

put the spinach on a towel to dry for a few minutes. chop it neatly, and sautée it for two minutes together with the onion and the garlic. season with a little salt and pepper, and let cool. 

in the meantime prepare a dough with the eggs, the ricotta, a few spoons of semolino (this will make the dough stick together better) and a little parmigiano. add the chopped herbs and finally the sautéed spinach. the wetness of your dough depends on the size of your eggs and how wet your spinach is. just add flour until the dough is sticky and shapable (it took me up to two small cups of flour. but don't overdo it, the malfatti will get firm in the hot water, anyway).

the next step needs a little practice. take two spoons, grab a little dough ball, and shape it with the spoons. carefully let them sink into the simmering, salted water. be careful not to stir them, they are rather fragile at the beginning of the cooking. they will be done when they appear on the surface. you can let them 'swim' there for another half a minute if you want to make sure they're really firm. then take the malfatti out, one by one, and put them in an oiled plate. 

now you can either eat them straight like that (as seen in the next picture, served with sage, a little fresh thyme and some olive oil) or heat them in the oven for a few minutes. i prefer them fried in the pan. make sure to fry each side of the malfatti for a few seconds until they begin to brown. sprinkle with grated parmigiano, hot butter and olive oil and some fried sage.

buon appetito! when you fall in love with malfatti: well done!