Building a dish through layers of ingredients (and flavors) that often already have a home in my fridge is extraordinarily satisfying, and resourceful. That’s the beauty, in my opinion, of keeping a stock of a certain set of rotating foundational ingredients at a given time of the year. How many different ways can you combine 4 or 5 base ingredients or items and come out with 4 or 5 entirely different, fresh and new dishes? It’s a fun, weird little challenge and there’s no better feeling than not leaving something to wither and turn in the far back depths of your fridge. In recent weeks, I’ve been working through a lot of homemade chicken broth, springtime greens (spinach!, lettuces!, lambsquarters and nettles!) and all the goregous alliums (green garlic!, ramps!, spring onion!), and of course, my ever-favorite, the dried bean—my favorite bean farmer is back at the greenmarket after a long winter and I am deep in a lustful mode of bean brining and simmering. Looking at the week of weather ahead, it’s showing alot of springtime rain and cooler temps, so it feels like a very appropriate time to dive into warming springy things in bowls that all sort of layer upon themselves. If we look at 3 base items: a good chicken broth, dried beans, and spring veg, we get 3 very warming yet uplifting dishes: malfatti in brodo; the easiest, creamiest slow simmered beans; and a lovely and bright springtime minestrone soup brimming with veg.
Read down for your path to spring in a bowl.
Malfatti translates to “badly formed” in Italian. Perhaps badly formed, but very good in taste and texture. My virgin voyage with these plump creamy dumplings was just a few weeks. I was skeptical and nervous lowering the first round of malfatti into simmering salted water, fearing that they were so delicate they would immediately crumble apart, dissolving right into the water. Yes, a bit of the semolina they’re rolled in does release itself, but the dumplings stayed together, easing my fears and wow, definitely delighting my tastebuds. My virgin voyage will not be my last. This recipe is a great canvas to add / swap ingredients for - maybe lambs quarters or nettles instead of (or in addition to) spinach, maybe ramps, chives or leeks instead of spring onion and green garlic. If you’ve already got some chicken broth in your fridge (or freezer), this dish comes together easily and quickly. I’ve mentioned my notes around a good chicken broth before, you’ll find the link in the recipe below. It’s honestly a great thing to keep around most of the autumn, winter and spring while temperatures are still a bit cool. Make a few quarts / liters at a time and freeze it so you’re always at the ready for soups, sipping, braising etc.
serves 4-6
makes about 15-18 (if I’m remembering correctly)
1 tablespoon olive oil
2 bunches of spinach, (or a big bag / box), about 250g , cleaned and washed
1 stalk green garlic, trimmed and finely minced
2 spring onions, trimmed and finely minced
250g / 1 cup whole fat ricotta cheese
25g / 1/4 cup parmesan cheese
25g / 1/4 cup pecorino romano cheese (or use all parmesan)
50g semolina flour (about 1/4 cup)
1 whole egg, room temperature
zest of 1 lemon
kosher salt to taste
freshly cracked white (or black) pepper
nutmeg, if desired
for serving:
3/4 -1 quart / liter of chicken broth (see a good baseline recipe here. maybe add a squeeze of lemon to make it a bit more springy) (about 3/4 cup per bowl)
extra grated parm or pecorino
a lemon cheek if you desire and / or some herb oil or ramp oil if you want to get fancy
In a large skillet over medium heat, saute the spinach in batches in olive oil until wilted, season lightly with salt. Squeeze out any excess water from the spinach and roughly chop. Add it to a large mixing bowl. Add a bit more olive oil to the pan and saute the spring onion and green garlic over medium-low heat for 3-4 minutes. Ssalt lightly and add with the spinach. Add in the ricotta, cheeses, semonlina flour, egg and lemon zest. Season with salt and pepper and a bit of grated nutmeg if desired.
Chill the mixture in the fridge for at least 2 hours, or overnight if you’re prepping ahead. Chilling the mixture makes it far easier to spoon and roll out the malfatti and they stay together better when being simmered.
To spoon and roll: use a soup spoon to portion out the chilled ricotta mixture, about 1-1 1/2 tablespoons per malfatti. Shape them into a nice little ball and roll in more semolina flour.
Place balls in the fridge until you’re ready to simmer and serve - they cook up real fast.
When you’re ready to cook, bring a pot of salted water (salty like the ocean) to a low boil/strong simmer, not a crazy rapid boil because my anxiety the balls will fall apart is still running high. While you’re waiting for the water to boil, bring your broth to a gentle simmer. When the malfatti water is boiling, gently drop the balls in and cook for 3-4 minutes, or until the malfatti rise to the surface and are nice and bouncy.
Place 4-5 balls in each bowl followed by a nice amount of chicken broth. Season with a lemon cheek or herb/ramp oil, or simply a dash of olive oil and a sprinkle of extra grated parmesan or pecorino. Best enjoyed basking in spring sunshine, but gazing outside at the rain will have to do this coming week.
I have extolled my deep, longing love for brined and simmered beans many a time over. Here’s my love story and a fully detailed brine-to-shine / simmer recipe. So good and satisfying and full of fiber, antioxdants and slow-carbs (for high energy). Beans for life y’all.
This last recipe for a round of springy things in bowls combines both the chicken broth and the simmered beans above (both very nice things to have backstock of in your fridge on the regular). I honestly haven’t given much thought about minestrone since I was just out of college. I would often make my mom’s version of it — which to her credit, is very good. I guess I grew out of that phase over 2 decades ago though…until a trip to Milan last month where I ate a glorious non-tomato, spring vegetable-forward minestrone at Trattoria Della Gloria. I loved the little mini taster ramekin of it they offered on the menu so much, that I ordered it for dessert too. A lovely clear broth with buoying bits of potato, peas, carrots, celery, a wisp of parsley and flecks of red chili flake. Simple but a detailed expression of what a spring veg soup should be. Below is my version, bulked up with some of my favorite sonora beans from Amoon Farm (if you’re in the NYC area), but any small white bean varietal will work well here (cannellini is traditional, borlotti, flagoelet, etc). I’ve noted the veg I had on hand at the time I was making the minestrone, but any combo of spring veg would work nicely (fava beans or snap peas would be a lovely addition for instance). You’ll notice I did not use any pasta in this verison—the potatoes are toothsome and filling enough along with the beans. If you are looking to amp up this soup with even more flavor, you might opt for a multi-meat broth. I’ve combined pork broth and chicken below, and of course, you could use all chicken (or even a straight veg broth), but the combo of a beef and/or pork broth with some chicken broth, creates so depth and an intensity to the soup that is really noticeable. Beef and pork broth are easy enough to make, in the same manner as you would chicken - roasting bones, adding your chosen aromatics, and letting water, time and a low temperature do its work.
serves 4-6
3 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
2 tablespoons butter
1 yellow onion, diced
2 spring onion or leeks, white portion only, minced
1/2 bunch of celery, stalks cleaned and thinly sliced on a bias
3-4 carrots, peeled and diced small
4 medium yellow potatoes, peeled and diced small-medium
1 cup yellow (or red) cherry tomatoes, halved or quartered
kosher salt to taste
cracked black pepper to taste
1-2 parmesan rinds
2-3 sprigs of fresh or dried oregano or marjoram
2 bay leaves
2 lemon peels
1 quart / liter chicken broth (or sub veg broth) *see recipe above
1/2 quart / liter pork or beef broth (or use all chicken or veg broth) *similar method as chicken broth recipe
2 cups / 1/2 liter (give or take) simmered white beans *see recipe above
3/4-1 cup fresh peas (or frozen, or fava beans, snap peas etc)
grated parmesan or pecorino romano for serving
celery leaves for garnish
In a large stock pot or Dutch oven, heat the olive oil and butter over medium heat. Add in the onion, spring onion/leek, carrots, celery, and potatoes and saute for 3-4 minutes. Add the yellow cherry tomatoes and saute another 4-5 minutes. Season veg lightly with salt (I like to do this before adding the broth so the flavors and nutrients in the veg are brought out) and pepper. Make a sachet with the parm rind, herb sprigs, bay leaves and lemon peels and add to the pot (if you don’t have cheesecloth on-hand, a coffee filter and some kitchen twine will do the trick). Turn the heat down to low and add in the broth(s). Simmer all the veg very gently on the lowest heat for about 1.5 hours. You want to bring out all the flavors and slowly cook the veg until tender without losing much of the broth quantity.
In the final 15-20 minutes of cooking, add in your beans so they warm and get nice and creamy. In the final 5-7 minutes of cooking, add in the peas so they cook through but keep their freshness and a slight bite. To serve, discard the aromatics sachet, add some celery leaves, a sprinkle of cheese, perhaps a bit more pepper or a squeeze of lemon and a bit of olive oil.
In other things unrelated to bowls, 2 quick notable mentions this week…
Namoi After-Cooking Hand Scrub - If you are seeking out a new kitchen hand soap (or even if you’re not), I have recently been treating my hands to a simple luxury after a cooking session with Naomi hand scrub. Naomi uses plant-based cleansers, algae and calendula extracts and vitamins B and E to nourish and exfoliate skin and keep hands hydrated and soft while also neutralizing odor (by including bread yeast enzymes in the formula, wow!). This soap was formulated and founded by former chefs and if you’ve ever done a 12-18 hour stretch in the kitchen, you know how sad and dry your hands can feel at the end of the day. Naomi is a bit of a happiness to your tried hands, truly. And both scents I’ve smelled/tried - Santal and Iris, and Bergamot and Pepper are so lovely they could easily pass for a gentle perfume. If I need to gush about Naomi any more, they work with a solar-powered manufacturer and give 2% of sales to World Central Kitchen, the incredible chef-based organization that feeds people in crisis. If you’re hands are curious, use the code batch1club for 25% any purchase before July 1st.
Dance, Pilates & Embodied Eating Retreat, Catskills June 18-21. If you’re looking for a brief early summer getaway to unlock and unwind right at the time of the summer solstice, join Good Move studio and myself in the Catskills for 3 days of upstate bliss - somatic dance and pilates, nature, intentional food right from our surroundings and an embodied eating hands-on cooking workshop. A long weekend to soften and release, to move, sweat, rest and rest—held by nature, guided with care. The retreat house is nestled in nature with acres of hiking trails, streams and fields to explore and a pool, hot tub and sauna to relax in. Just 5 spots left. Find more details about the retreat and Good Move’s incredible ethos HERE!
Thanks for reading Well Fed!
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