The theme of May's cookery night at Olive and Rosy was Canederli, a dish from the mountains of the South Tyrol. Here is the recipe used by Stefano.
Ingredients
160 gr. Old white bread
Breadcrumbs as required
2 Whole eggs (medium)
30 gr. White flour
Some Parsley ( a small bunch)
180/200 gr. Speck, bacon or any other ingredient you prefer (if is a vegetable always cook it first in the usual way you like it or simply with oil, garlic, salt, pepper)
125 ml. Fresh whole milk
A generous pinch of Chives
1 White onion
Nutmeg
Garlic (better if dried)
Black pepper
A small amount of Butter. 10/15 grams
2 L of Beef stock (can substitute with veg stock)
Method
1
First of all prepare the beef stock, even the day before. Chop finely the onion and fry it in a pan enough broad together with butter, some nutmeg, black pepper and dried garlic.
2
Meanwhile cut the speck into small cubes and add it to the “soffritto” (onion base).
3
Mix all together and let it cook for 6/7 minutes at a medium fire set, until the speck will appear nicely golden cooked.
4
Whilst the speck is cooking cut the bread in small cubes(this is to add texture to our dumplings),then pour all into a bowl: speck (or whatever you choose) and bread.
5
Then add two whole eggs, chives&parsley (finely chopped). Beware: the quantity of Parsley should be double of Chives.
6
Mix all to allow a first bond of the flavours and after that add the milk and keep mixing until the mixture is all equally mixed and soaked of itself.
7
After that cover your bowl with the mixture and put it to rest for at least one hour in the fridge.
After the resting time, adjust the mixture with some salt and so mix it a bit again(you can use a wooden spoon or whatever you have for this task)
8
Now is time to test it with our hands.
Feel the consintency of the mixture: it doesn’t have to be to soak and wet: a floppy mixture will not stay in shape…obvious.
For adjust this we add bit of breadcrumbs at time until it dry enough to obtain a ball of solid consistency.
9
Than add the flour (30 gr) and mix all until the same density in all the mixture is reached. It has to be not too wet and floppy and not too dry.
Clean your hands and soak them in some water and start to take a certain amount of mixture so you can make your “canederli”
You should be able to make 6 balls by the size of a tennis ball… or if you prefer do them smaller.
Make sure the surface of the dumplings is smooth and without cracks otherwise during the coking they will split and break.
Keep your hands wet for make smooth the surface…
10
Keep your “Canederli” on a plate.
In a casserole pot make boil the stock and than poor onto it the Canederli for about 15 minutes.
The right pot/pan is one of the size that allows you to keep “Canederli” fully under the stock (must)but not one on top of each other…otherwise cook few of them at a time…
11
Our “Canederli” of Speck in stock are ready!!
Serve in a shallow dish with some warm stock and complete the serving with a sprinkle of chives, grated Parmigiano Reggiano and olive oil.
We enjoyed this article explaining a little more about the dish.