Mama Zuquinis Malfatti Recipes

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!

MAMA ZUQUINIS ZUPPA RUSTICA

Steps:

• Combine pasta, water and bouillon in large saucepan. Bring to a boil. Cook, stirring frequently, for 8 to 10 minutes or until pasta is tender and broth has reduced to about 1/2 cup; do not drain. Reduce heat to low; add pesto.
• Cook, stirring frequently, until sauce has reduced slightly. Stir in tomatoes, broccoli and beans. Cook, stirring occasionally, until heated through. Sprinkle with cheese before serving. Season with ground black pepper, if desired.

MAMA ZUQUINIS MALFATTI

Steps:

• Place the frozen spinach in a saucepan with the salt. Cook until thawed (15 min) over low heat. Drain squeezing out the water from the spinach and then mince until fine.
• In a large bowl, combine the spinach, breadcrumbs, the two cheeses, eggs, the herbs, the nutmeg and black pepper. Mix well and refrigerate overnight.
• When ready to make, form oval dumplings 3 inches long and about 1 inch in diameter. Roll each dumpling in the flour. Do not let them touch each other while they stand.
• Bring the salted water to a boil. Drop the dumplings into the salted water to form one layer. When they have risen to the surface, cook for 4 more minutes.
• Lift out the cooked malfatti, letting them drain well, and place into a well-buttered oven proof dish in a 250 degrees F oven while the other batches cook.
• To serve, toss with butter and serve. Garnish with Parmesan cheese and 1 cup marinara per person.
• NOTE: can be frozen after cooking. To serve, toss frozen malfatti in melted butter and Parmesan cheese, place in a well buttered dish and heat in a 350 degree F oven for 30 minutes.

STUFFED AND BAKED ITALIAN MANICOTTI

Steps:

• Brown the ground round and lightly rinse with hot water. Set aside. Brown the mild Italian Sausage and rinse in the same way.
• Place both meats into a food processor and process until fine and uniform.
• Take 1/3 of the meat mixture and place into the crockpot. Add all of the ingredients except for the ricotta, 1 tsp of Italian seasonings and 1 teaspoon of tarragon to the meat in the Crockpot. Cook on low for 8 to 10 hours. Stirring occasionally. Salt to taste.
• Take the remaining 2/3 of the meat mixture and mix the 12 oz to 16 oz of ricotta, 1 teaspoons of Italian seasonings and 1 teaspoons tarragon. Mix well. Place into the fridge until sauce is nearly done.
• When sauce is nearly finished and when preparing to assemble:.
• Remove meat and ricotta mixture from refrigerator and let stand for 15 minutes, stir and place into a zip lock bag. Work meat and ricotta until nearly room temperature.
• Bring appropriate amount of water to a boil and cook manicotti to product specs. but just until the pasta is uniformly softened, but not completely cooked. If over cooked the shells will tear when trying to stuff. Put about 1/2 " of sauce into the bottom of a 9" x 13" casserole dish.
• Then snip a bottom corner from the bag with meat mixture, approximately 1/2 " in diameter.
• Preheat oven to 350°F.
• Place the snipped end of the bag into one end of a cooked manicotti shell and squeeze the mixture into the shell until it is full but not splitting. If it splits just place split side down into pan and go on to the next. It takes some time to make this a technique.
• Place the cooked Manicotti staggered into the dish.
• Cover with more of the sauce to your liking.
• Cover with the Parmesan or save the Parmesan until serving and use as a garnish.
• Bake for 30 minutes.
• Serve with a green salad and sour dough bread, topped with butter and minced garlic and broiled .

MALFATTI

Steps:

• Heat the oil in a large frying pan over a high heat and wilt the spinach, about 2-3 mins. Tip the spinach into a colander and press out any excess liquid using the back of a spoon. Leave to cool completely. Squeeze out any remaining liquid with your hands, then finely chop the spinach.
• Tip the chopped spinach into a bowl with the ricotta, breadcrumbs and parmesan. Add the egg and semolina or flour. Season and grate over some nutmeg. Stir to form an evenly combined, sticky mixture.
• Put a couple tablespoons of flour on a large tray and shake gently to spread the flour out. Spoon around ½ tbsp of the spinach mixture onto the floured tray and roll into a ball. Repeat with the rest of the spinach mixture, transferring the balls to a second clean baking tray as you go.
• Heat the oven to 140C/120C fan/gas 1. Bring a large pan of salted water to the boil. Drop in the malfatti (you may need to do this in batches) and simmer for 2 mins, or until they float to the surface. Scoop the malfatti out with a slotted spoon and drain well. Transfer to an ovenproof serving dish and keep warm in the oven.
• Make the sage butter by melting the butter in a small pan. Add the sage leaves and fry gently, stirring often until crisp. Pour the sage butter over the malfatti and top with more grated cheese.

MOM'S ZUCCHINI BREAD

Steps:

• Grease and flour two 8 x 4 inch pans. Preheat oven to 325 degrees F (165 degrees C).
• Sift flour, salt, baking powder, soda, and cinnamon together in a bowl.
• Beat eggs, oil, vanilla, and sugar together in a large bowl. Add sifted ingredients to the creamed mixture, and beat well. Stir in zucchini and nuts until well combined. Pour batter into prepared pans.
• Bake for 40 to 60 minutes, or until tester inserted in the center comes out clean. Cool in pan on rack for 20 minutes. Remove bread from pan, and completely cool.

MRS. SEBASTIANI'S MALFATTI

Steps:

• Cook the fresh spinach in the water clinging to the leaves after washing, or cook the frozen according to package instructions. Drain over a bowl, squeezing out as much water as possible - do this in small handfuls so you can press out the most water - and chop. Reserve the water.
• Briefly soak the bread in the reserved spinach water plus enough hot water to cover and squeeze dry.
• Sauté the onion and garlic in the olive oil until tender, 3 to 5 minutes. Mix the spinach, bread, sautéed onion and garlic and put through the finest blade of a meat grinder or pulse in a food processor until chopped, then scrape into a mixing bowl.
• Add 1/2 cup of the dry bread crumbs, the cup of Parmesan, parsley, salt, pepper and basil. Stir in the eggs. With lightly floured hands, gently shape the mixture into sausagelike links, 1 inch round by 3 inches long. If they do not hold together, add more bread crumbs. Lay on a baking sheet.
• Bring a large pot of salted water to a boil. Drop the links, one at a time, into the boiling water. Reduce the heat to let the water barely simmer and cook until the malfatti float to the surface, 1 to 2 minutes. Remove with a slotted spoon, drain on paper towels and place in a greased baking dish, large enough to fit the malfatti in a single layer.
• Spoon the tomato sauce over the links, sprinkle with lots of cheese and broil to reheat.

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.