Spinach dumplings with tomato sauce

It is a feast disguised as leftovers: Without stale white bread, nothing works in this dish, because it holds all the ingredients together. In South Tyrol and Trentino, the dish has the euphonious name "canederli di spinaci". In these parts of Italy, spinach dumplings are a natural part of the famous dumpling trio, without which your hiking vacation might not be a real vacation. In late summer and fall, not only hiking is in season, but also spinach. This leafy vegetable, which is rich in vitamins and minerals, is not only available freshly harvested in spring - reason enough to give it its own special appearance to set the mood for the cozy season with its hearty dishes.

For the tomato sauce:

50 ml olive oil
1 pepperoncini (chili), processed without the core
1 clove of garlic
½ tsp oregano
10 basil leaves
800 g tinned San Marzano tomatoes
Salt and pepper
1 tsp sugar

For the spinach dumplings:
500 g stale white bread or light rolls from the day before
250 g milk
200 g onion
60 ml olive oil
1 clove of garlic
1.250 g spinach, washed and spun
40 ml pastis to taste
1 pinch of nutmeg
Salt and pepper
4 eggs
80 g flour
120 g butter
12 sage leaves
60 g Parmesan cheese

To make the tomato sauce, first peel and finely chop the garlic. Remove the seeds from the peperoncini. Heat the olive oil in a wide pot and add the garlic, peperoncini, basil leaves, and oregano. Heat all the ingredients while stirring until the garlic starts to “sing” slightly in the pan. Be careful not to let it burn or get too dark!

Next, add the tomatoes along with their juice to the pot and let the mixture simmer over low heat for about 40 minutes. Then strain the tomato mixture (tip: Flotte Lotte, coarse disc) to achieve a smooth sauce.

Finally, reheat the tomato sauce and season to taste with salt, pepper, and a pinch of sugar.

For the dumplings, cut bread or rolls into cubes about 1.5 cm on each side and place them in a large bowl. Bring the milk to a boil in a saucepan and pour it over the white bread cubes while still hot. Let the mixture soak in well.

Finely dice the onion and mince the garlic. Sort through the spinach leaves, wash them, and spin them dry thoroughly. Heat the olive oil in a large pot, sauté the onions, and briefly cook the garlic along with them. Then add the spinach leaves and, if desired, deglaze with the pastis. Cover, let the spinach wilt, and steam until tender.

Briefly strain the spinach mixture along with its liquid, collecting the liquid and reducing it in a small saucepan until syrupy. Return the reduction to the spinach and season to taste with nutmeg, salt, and pepper.

Now prepare the dumpling mixture. To do this, add about two-thirds of the spinach mixture to the dumpling dough. Finely puree the remaining spinach with the eggs and flour, then add this to the dumpling dough as well. Mix all the ingredients well and, with moistened hands, form twelve dumplings of roughly equal size, each weighing 170–180 grams.

Cook the dumplings in plenty of boiling water for about 10–15 minutes until tender. Meanwhile, prepare the sage butter. To do this, brown the butter in a pan and slowly fry the sage leaves in it until crispy.

To serve, arrange three spinach dumplings per person on a bed of tomato sauce and garnish with brown butter, fried sage, and a little freshly grated Parmesan.