Culinary spring delights – recipe tip from Liana

Liana Paniccia is always in demand at Tenuta delle Rose when it comes to delicious Tuscan dishes. Today she shares one of her favourite spring recipes with you: Crespelle à la Fiorentina.

 

“Crespelle alla Fiorentina” – pancakes stuffed with spinach and ricotta and oven-baked – were traditionally eaten by farmers in the springtime. The chickens were finally allowed back into the fields after the winter, they laid the first eggs and the first spinach came from the garden.

Enjoy making it and buon appetito!

Ingredients for 4 people:

For the batter:

100 grams flour

2 eggs

1 glass milk

Salt

 

For the filling:

200 grams baby spinach, blanched

300 grams ricotta

1 egg

Salt, pepper, nutmeg

 

For the “besciamella” sauce:

50 grams butter

60 grams flour

500 ml milk

Salt, pepper, nutmeg

To make the batter, beat the eggs with the flour and some salt, then add the milk and leave to stand for half an hour.

To make the filling, cut the spinach very finely and mix into the ricotta cheese with the egg, nutmeg, salt and pepper.

To make the sauce, melt the butter over a low heat, add flour – as with a roux – and then beat in the cold milk with a whisk. This will take a few minutes. Keep stirring to avoid any lumps. Cook until the sauce thickens, then add salt, pepper and nutmeg to taste.

Melt some butter in a frying pan (15-20 cm diameter) and cook the crespelle one after the other, about 8-10 pancakes. Spread some filling on each pancake and roll it up. Put all the crespelle into a flameproof, lightly buttered baking dish, pour over the sauce and cook in a preheated oven at 180 degrees for 15-18 minutes until the sauce starts to brown.