Canederli
Thursday 14th February 2019
Canederli is one of the most known and appreciated traditional dish of the Alps. It was created from a farming community background where, to avoid any waste, you would use the leftovers of the kitchen. Some of the main ingredients are: stale bread, eggs, meat, sausage, cold cuts and cheese.
There are many seasonal variation of ingredients, in spring in Val di Fassa you would add "megol" (silene vulgaris) which is a spontaneous herb which grows in the fields. Other variations include: beetroot, nettle, mushrooms or pumpkin.
Here in Hotel Alpi you can try several variations, each week we offer canederli in a different way, otherwise you can try to prepare them at home, here is our recipe!
When preparing canederli you should abound with the quantity so the mixture will result more homogeneous, furthermore it is a product which preserve very well, also in the freezer. The cooking is similar to pasta.
RECIPE FOR CANEDERLI
Ingredients:
- 1 kg stale white bread (thin crust type)
- ½ liter of milk (the exact quantity might change based on the type of bread)
- 8 eggs
- 500 gr of meat and cold cuts (can be substituted with your favorite ingredient: cheese, mushrooms, vegetables...)
- 100 gr of Trentingrana or Parmigiano
- 1 spoonful of white flour
- Parsley, chives, salt and pepper
Cut the bread in small cubes and wet it with some milk to obtain a soft but substantial mixture.
Add Trentingrana, eggs and flour.
After mixing add chopped parsley and chive, meat and cold cuts thinly chopped. If you use spinach, beetroots etc. reduce the quantity of milk because they contain a lot of water.
Mix and knead the mixture with your hands to obtain an homogeneous consistency, then separate it into mandarin sized balls.
At this point you can do a "holding" test, to check that it would not crumble, placing one canederlo in a pan of gently boiling water.
You cook the canederli in a gently boiling meat broth for about 15 minutes. You can cook them straight from frozen, in this case the 15 minutes starts once the they rise to surface.
You can serve them in their cooking broth, with melted butter and some Trentingrana or "dry", accompanying goulash or a cabbage salad.
We await you in Val di Fassa to taste our canederli.
Buon appetito!
Other recipes:
