Strangolapreti alla Trentina are tasty gnocchi made with bread, spinach, and bladder campion or other wild herbs. They are called strangolapreti, or “priest chokers” because they are pretty sticky and tend to stick to the palate when you eat them. An excellent dish also for the summer, if served with a lighter sauce, even one made with vegetables. With fresh tomato, for example, they are excellent, but I am of the opinion that they should be served in a more traditional version, therefore with butter and a sprinkle of mature goat’s cheese.
300 g stale white bread
350 g fresh spinach (or 400 g frozen)
300 ml milk
2 eggs
4 dessertspoons of grated grana cheese
1 small onion
30 g butter
nutmeg
pepper
salt
breadcrumbs (if needed)
Cut the bread into little cubes, or blitz it into coarse chunks in a food mixer. If the bread is too dry, cut it with a knife. Heat the milk, pour it over the bread and leave to rest for about 30 minutes. Cook the spinach in a little water, drain, cool quickly under a jet of cold water and chop finely with a knife until it is almost mashed. Finely chop the onion and soften in the butter, add the spinach and toss to flavour.
You can also blend the spinach in a mixer for more even colour. In this case, toss the leaves in the frying pan without chopping them with the knife, cool and then blend in a mixer with the two eggs. Then mix all the ingredients with the soaked bread, adding the blitzed spinach, eggs, grated cheese, and salt, pepper and nutmeg to taste.
Sprinkle a pastry board with breadcrumbs (this is not always necessary, in fact in the video I didn’t use any as the consistency was perfect) and shape the strangolapreti. First roll the mixture into long “ropes” like when you make potato gnocchi then cut into pieces the same size, roll into balls with the hands (wetting them slightly if the mixture is too dry). Finally, again with your hands, give the strangolapreti their slightly oval shape.
Boil in salted water for 4/5 minutes, then take off the heat and leave in the boiling water for about a minute, drain and shake in a frying pan with the 80 g of butter, previously browned with the sage leaves. Serve with a few flakes of goat’s cheese or grated grana cheese.
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