I have wonderful memories of making spinach and ricotta malfatti (best described as wonderfully light, wonkily formed, fresh gnocchi-type dumplings) from the late, great Russell Norman’s Venice cookbook. He suggests forming them by dropping them into a wine glass of polenta, swirling the glass to coat each malfatti, then poaching. I made them for my parents’ first visit to our new home, and encouraged everyone to get involved by swirling their own; I also made them for weaning (with a little less salt) and got my daughter, Alba, involved as soon as she was old enough to hold a wine glass. They’re that good. But now, with not one but two toddlers to contend with, I make life a lot easier by turning them into fritters, and use up the insane quantities of chard from the garden at the same time. This is my homage to Russell’s original.
