La Cucina di Mica

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Malfatti de la Abuela Graciela

Another family staple: my grandma’s Malfatti. They are like Italian spinach meatballs. The name Malfatti translates to “badly made” because of their lack of shape. As opposed to popular opinion, I don’t consider them pasta or dumplings; they are just Malfatti.

My grandma always pairs them up with white rice, Pomodoro sauce, heavy cream, and a nice cheese gratin on top. And that is what this recipe calls for.

Note: Family recipes don’t originally have quantities, just a rough set of ingredients and a one-sentence procedure. This has its pros and cons. The pro is that you are free to change things up as much as you want (e.g., cut out the rice, add other spices, etc.). The cons are that there is never one perfect way of making them. No quantification makes for little chance of properly iterating and replicating. But well! Here is my attempt at sharing my grandma’s recipe:

Ingredients

  • 4 bunches of spinach
  • 1/4 cup parsley
  • 2 cloves of garlic
  • 1 Egg
  • A slice of bread or 1/4 cub of breadcrumbs
  • Enough milk just to soak the bread
  • Less than a cup of flour (enough to form the Malfatti)
  • Salt
  • Pepper
  • Nutmeg
  • 1 1/2 cups of white rice
  • 1/3 cup of heavy cream
  • 1/4 cup of Gruyere
  • 1/3 cup of Parmesan
  • 1 onion
  • 1 can of whole peeled tomato
  • 1 1/2 tbls. of oil
  • 1 tbls. of sugar
Recipe Picture

Procedure

  • Make a simple Pomodoro sauce: saute the onion and 1 clove of garlic in a little bit of oil for around 20 minutes. Add the can of tomato, 1 tablespoon of sugar, salt, and pepper.
  • Blanch the spinach, let it cool, drain all its water with your hands, and chop finely. Put it in a large bowl.
  • To the bowl, add 1 finely chopped clove of garlic, the finely chopped parsley, the egg, salt, pepper, nutmeg, and the soaked bread or breadcrumbs (it should be just soaked enough so it’s not dry). Combine, and use four to make it into a more stable mixture.
  • Form the Malfatti with your hands and roll them on a plate with flour. Boil them in a large pot with lots of flour.
  • One tip: these things just fall apart very easily, so make sure to add enough flour to get consistent balls before boiling them.
  • Boil the rice and put it in an oven-proof serving dish. Add the Pomodoro sauce, the malfatti one by one, the heavy cream, and the cheese (grated). Take to the oven until the cheese is golden.