Spinach Malfatti
Thanksgiving is just around the corner and with the holiday mood came this idea of having something exotic and fusiony in the middle of the week. I was browsing for spinach recipes since I had that in mind and stumbled upon this italian recipe. “Malfatti” means poorly made in italian. It has steamed spinach and cheese dumplings smothered in a chunky tomato sauce topped with more cheese and baked in the oven. Tomato provides it a lovely tangy taste and spinach and cottage cheese gives you a substantial amount of folic acid, iron, vitamin A, vitamin C and protein. I really like that the dumplings are not fried, they are steamed, so its even better for calorie conscious souls!
Ingredients
- Home made cottage cheese – 3/4 cup
- Chopped baby spinach – 3 cups
- All purpose flour – 2 tbsp
- Salt – to taste
- Finely chopped Green chillies – 3
- Tomato pulp – 1 cup
- Olive oil – 1 tbsp
- Mozzarella cheese – 2 tbsp
- Paprika – 2 tsp
- Milk/cream – 4 tbsp
- Finely chopped onions – 2 tbsp
- Baking Powder – 2 pinches
Method
Crumble the cottage cheese and mix green chillies, salt, baking powder and all purpose flour. Steam the spinach leaves for 5 minutes, squeeze out excess water and add them to the mixture. Make balls out of the mixture and steam them in microwave for 4 minutes on full power.
Heat oil in a pan and add the onions. Saute the onions for a couple of minutes. Add the tomato pulp to the pan. Bring it to a boil and cook on medium high flame until the gravy thickens. Add salt, paprika and 1/2 cup water. Bring the gravy to a boil and cook for 10 minutes on medium flame. Finally add cream and keep aside.
Arrange the beautiful green dumplings in a glass baking dish and add the tomato gravy on top. Sprinkle cheese on each dumpling. Bake it at 400F for 15 minutes or until cheese melts. Serve it hot (optionally with hot Paranthas)
