Malfatti

[Katie Meadow]

I finally took the plunge and made my first batch. I used the recipe for swiss chard malfatti in Amanda Hesser's NYT book, but, being me, I couldn't help tinkering with it. Frankly the specified amounts of butter and eggs were frightening.

I used the basic ingredients and technique. My first problem was that the chard purveyer at the farmers' market didn't have a scale, and the recipe specified 4 lbs. I went away with two enormous bunches, which I figured might weight close to 3 lbs. I don't have a scale at home either, so I just winged it and used it all; when it was well drained and chopped it seemed like a fair amount. I used almost the amount of ricotta and flour specified, but literally half the butter and half the egg yolks. The end result was far better than I expected for a first try. They were not stiff but rather delicate, but they did just hold their shape sitting on a board for a couple of hours before cooking. They were very chardy, which I liked, light and tasty. I served them as suggested, with a brown butter sage drizzle. Next time I might try them with a fresh tomato butter sauce, or a cooked tomato sauce in the winter.

I checked a few other recipes and it seems that they all are wildly different. Some use bread instead of flour, some use no eggs, some use lots of whole eggs, others mostly yolks. And they also differ as to cooking time, even allowing for the fact that the size of the dumplings varies somewhat. Most all recipes say they are done when they float; some recipes say that will take about 3 minutes. Amanda says 8-10 minutes. Mine floated at about 2 minutes, so I left them in to simmer another 5 minutes, which seemed fine.

What's your experience making malfatti? Are the quantities of ingredients as flexible as they seem or was I just lucky? Gnocchi seem much less forgiving.

[stuartlikesstrudel]

The only recipe I have made is from a cookbook I like called Spice, by Ana Sortun who is a chef at a restaurant called Oleana, somewhere in America.

Anyhow, I don't remember it having ANY butter in it, so I found someone who had blogged the recipe and sure enough, it seems a lot healthier than the ones you're describing. From memory, I made a mushroom-y broth to serve them in, as I didn't have chestnuts and felt like something different anyway.

I think they were pretty good, and easy to work with... but it was a while ago that I made them.

[Genkinaonna]

So basically they're a gnocchi with some green in them, usually spinach? Because if that's the case, HOW DID I NOT KNOW ABOUT THESE?!? I love chard and I can't believe I've never even heard of them. I think a menu change for dinner one night this week might be in order...

[Katie Meadow]

I wouldn't say that exactly. Gnocchi, to the best of my ability (no expert here) are typically made with potato and flour as the base, with variations on that theme. Malfatti are mostly a leafy green (blanched, drained, dried and chopped) plus ricotta. There is some flour added, but not a lot. Many recipes use spinach, but I prefer the flavor and texture of chard.

[Genkinaonna]

I guess I was thinking more like a ricotta gnocchi, not a potato one. But the same idea. Sounds delicious any way you define it!

[LindaK]

These sound a lot like storzapretis, the Corsican gnocci that I discovered via Dorie Greenspan's Around My French Table. They also use ricotta and greens (spinach and mint). They were fantastic and much easier to work with than potato gnocci. I like the idea of using chard for a change.

I have Ana Sortun's Spice cookbook and took a look at her malfatti recipe. The two are very similar.

btw, make lots, they freeze really well.

[Genkinaonna]

That's kinda what I noticed when I was looking through Around My French Table tonight...maybe I can parlay my experiment into one of my French Fridays with Dorie projects...