Hello fellow food lovers,
Today I want to share a special recipe with you!
Cooking is one of my favorite things to do. I enjoy learning new recipes and getting to try the final product. I especially like when someone teaches me how to make something. For example, these dumplings were first made by my grandmother (I call her Guga). She used to make me these dumplings every time I would visit her. One day I asked if she could teach me how to make them, and it started a great tradition. As a child, I remember I would make my own menus for my family pretending we were at a restaurant. I would put some other options on there to spice it up, but the main course was, of course, spinach ricotta dumplings.
I want to share this recipe as a way to encourage people to make this meal for themselves and their family. However, it is more of an appetizer than anything.
First, gather the appropriate ingredients:
1 box (or bag) of fresh spinach, 2 cups of ricotta cheese, 1 cup of parmesan cheese, 1 package of wonton wrappers, two cloves of shallots, olive oil, salt, and pepper.
Step 1: Add olive oil, salt and pepper to a large pan. Turn to low heat. Cut up shallots to a relatively small size. Add to oil and cook until brown. Add spinach and cook until all of the spinach is soft (sauté)
Step 2: Once the spinach has sat for about 5 minutes, add ricotta cheese and parmesan cheese to the same mixing bowl.
This will be your dumpling filling:
Step 3: Find a cutting board and place your wonton wrappers in one corner, that way you can have access to them as you make each dumpling. Fill a separate small bowl with water to dip your fingers in to wet the edges of the wonton wrappers.
Each wonton is square-shaped. There are other, larger wonton wrappers available, but these are the size I chose for this batch.
Step 4: Place each individual wrapper in the center of the cutting board, one at a time, as you fill the wrappers. Wet all four edges of the wrapper before you add the filling.
Take about a quarter-size amount of filling and place it in the center of the wrapper. Fold over one side to make it into a triangle. From here, take a fork and crimp the edges of the triangular dumpling (This keeps the dumplings from opening while you cook them).
Step 5: Add more olive oil to the pan you used to sauté the spinach. Turn up the heat to low/medium. Be careful of oil splatter!
Add each dumpling to the pan. It may take a few rounds to cook all of the dumplings, so be patient:) You want to make sure each dumpling has enough space to cook.
Step 6: Flip each dumpling once the bottom side is a golden-brown. Cook the other side the same. You will most likely need to continue adding olive oil in order to keep them from burning.
Once they are finished, you can prepare them with a dipping sauce! I usually prefer soy sauce, but other people I have made these for have used marinara sauce as well. I would encourage everyone to add their own spin to this recipe!
@eng304cripps
