Spinach spaeztle

Another good recipe to use all these leaves in my fridge. Because I like eating greens, but not necessarily in a salad. For this recipe , I didn't have enough of them. After removing stems, the weight of spinach dropped by half and then some. That's OK. My spätzle were very green anyway. And very good.

I remember my Mom making this sort of thing, dripping batter into a hot liquid (milk or broth) to make some noodles. I had never tried, till yesterday. I wasn't prepared all the way, I'm usually not, but my solution-oriented-mind, especially in time of crises, came to rescue. 

I was running around the house, looking for something to drip the batter through. I didn't want to drip and drip and drip from a spoon like Mom did, I wanted to do it better. First I thought, my slotted spoon would work...but the holes were too small. I looked into using some other things...while the water was already boiling, I was opening drawers and cabinets. And then I saw my grater. Yes! That was it. The batter came out in a lot of small drips right in the hot water and a minute later on my plate. Fast and easy. I was pleasantly surprised. 

Recipe adapted from Giallo Zafferano
time: 10 min preparation + 1/2 hr inactive + 5 min cooking

ingredients

• 100 g (3.5 oz)  fresh spinach leaves
• 3 small eggs
• 100 ml (.4 cup) water
• 1/4 teaspoon (2 g) salt
• pinch of nutmeg
• 220 g (1 1/2 cups) flour

3 tomatoes, grated Parmesan, 1 garlic clove,  2 Tablespoons olive oil, salt, pepper

instructions

1. Blanche spinach. Prepare a medium bowl with ice water. In a medium pot of salted, boiling water, cook spinach for 2 minutes. Strain it and transfer it into the ice water for a minute. Strain again, squeezing water out. Chop it with a big knife.
2. In a food processor with a steal blade, blend chopped spinach with eggs, water, salt and nutmeg till fine and creamy, for about 2 minutes. Transfer it into a medium bowl. With a rubber spatula, fold in flour into the spinach mix. Let it rest in the fridge for at least 30 minutes.
3. Meanwhile, cut tomatoes in half and remove seeds with juices. Dice the rest. On a medium skillet, heat 2 Tablespoon olive oil on medium/high. Add one garlic clove split in half. Once you smell the garlic (after 1-2 minutes) , remove it from the skillet and toss it. Add diced tomatoes and saute for 30 seconds. Add a pinch of salt and take it off the heat.
4. Bring a medium pot of salted water to boil. Using a flat grater with big eyes and a rubber spatula, force spinach batter through the holes, letting them drip into the boiling water. Water needs to be moving a bit or spaetzle will stick together. Once you finished with the last dose, let pasta cook for 1 minute. Stir if necessary to prevent sticking. Remove spaetzle with a slotted spoon, draining all the water, and transfer it onto the skillet with tomatoes or straight onto a serving plate.  Try not to overload water. I repeated the process twice. Top with grated Parmesan and freshly ground pepper.