On weekends and around the holidays, it wasn’t unusual to see Napans lined up outside the kitchen door with pots and pans from home to pick up an order of the classic to go. While many who grew up on the Depot’s Malfatti believed it was created by Tamburelli in the 1930’s, it’s actually a dish that has roots in Italy. Malfatti literally means “poorly made” in Italian, and while the shape may be irregular, the there’s nothing poor about the taste. Rich, tender and savory, Malfatti is like a more flavorful gnocchi with rustic charm. What sets it apart is not just the shape (or lack of it), but the inclusion of a large quantity of leafy greens in the dough, giving the dumplings an emerald green color and verdant flavor. The Malfatti at the Depot used stale bread as its base, but I actually prefer using a combination of fresh ricotta with flour and semolina, because it creates a more flavorful dumpling that holds up better in sauce. Like gnocchi, the key to making a tender Malfatti is to use as little flour as possible to make the dough. Flour not only makes the Malfatti dense and heavy, it also makes them chewy. That’s why It’s important to squeeze as much water out of the spinach as you can and to use ricotta that’s been thoroughly drained. Otherwise your dough will end up too soft and you’ll need to add more flour to help them hold their shape. This makes about sixty Malfatti, so for the first day, I served these with browned butter, crispy sage leaves, Meyer lemon zest, and plenty of Parmigiano Reggiano. The combo strikes a terrific balance between the green flavors of the spinach and sage, the richness of the cheese, the nuttiness of the browned butter, and the bright zing of lemon. While the dumplings are indeed malformed, they make for an attractive hot mess that tastes even better than they look. As long as you coat the outside of the dumplings with enough semolina and keep them covered, they’ll keep in the fridge for up to two days, so the next day I went with a more familiar pot of sugo for the rest of the Malfatti, which certainly does bring back memories.
📖 Recipe
