Pancakes with ricotta cheese and spinach (Crespelle ricotta e spinaci)
Ricotta cheese and spinach are guaranteed to be a perfect marriage.
I've already posted two other great recipes with these two products as main ingredients: oven-baked omelette with spinach and ricotta cheese and spinach balls with ricotta cheese.
"Crespelle con ricotta e spinaci" is an alternative and original primo dish for pasta, ideal for a large and important dinner, especially if you want to surprise and impress your guests.
Everyone will surely be won over by this lovely and tasty dish.
An advantage of this delicious dish is that you can prepare it in advance... practical right?
Once I made "crespelle con ricotta e spinaci" at Los&co... 150 pancakes!
It was madness!
But I did it! Or it's better to say: we did it!
Barbara, my friend, helped me.
Cooking with someone who shares the same passion for food is just amazing.
I could never have done it without her.
Everything became easier and more fun and the time flew by with laughter and pancake frying. There was a lot of laughter and 150 pancakes! 😊
Everyone at Los&co was very happy that day when they ate the pancakes.
Many people have asked me: when are you going to make these super delicious pancakes again?
The answer is: NEVER AGAIN. 🤦♀️
diff. 1
Preparation:
Cooking time/roasting time: 60'
Wine: Roero Arneis or Vermentino
Ingredients for 10 pancakes:
- 125 g wheat flour 00
- 2 egg
- 3 dl whole milk
- a pinch of salt
For brushing the frying pan:
- 2 tablespoon of butter
This is what you do:
Sift the wheat flour into a bowl.
Add the eggs and 1/XNUMX of the milk and stir into a lump-free mixture.
Whisk in the rest of the milk a little at a time and add the salt. Stir together into a fairly thin pancake batter.
Strain the mixture through a fine-mesh sieve.
Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and leave the batter to rise for at least 1 hour.
Brush a small frying pan (Ø 20 cm) with a little butter and heat it over medium heat.
Pour a small ladleful of the batter into the frying pan. Turn the frying pan over so that the bottom is evenly covered with a thin layer of pancake batter.
Fry the pancake for 3-4 minutes until the batter has set and is golden brown.
Turn the pancake with a spatula and cook it for approx. 2-3 minutes until it is also golden.
Place the pancake on a plate.
Fry the other pancakes in the same way.
Ingredients for bechamel sauce:
- 100 g butter
- 100 g wheat flour
- 1 l whole milk
- a pinch of grated nutmeg
- salt and freshly ground black pepper
This is what you do:
Heat the whole milk in a saucepan almost to boiling point.
Melt the butter in a heavy-bottomed saucepan over medium heat.
Pull the pan to the side and sprinkle the wheat flour over and stir well with a whisk so that a light consistency (roux) is formed. Place the pot back on the plate and continue to stir.
Pour in a little of the milk and stir well so that the mixture dissolves. Stir until it is lump-free.
Add the rest of the milk while constantly stirring and bring to the boil.
Reduce the heat, season with salt, pepper and nutmeg.
Allow the sauce to infuse, stirring, at the boiling point for at least 15 minutes.
If you are not going to use the sauce straight away, put the sauce in a bowl and put plastic foil on the surface so that it does not get sticky.
Ingredients for pancake filling (10 pancakes 20Ø cm):
- 200 g spinach
- 250 g ricotta cheese
- 2 tablespoons of mascarpone cheese
- 50 g freshly grated parmesan + 2 tablespoons for topping
- 2 egg yolks
- 1 garlic clove
- 1 pinch of nutmeg
- salt and freshly ground black pepper
- 2 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
This is what you do:
Preheat the oven to 220 degrees.
Wash and rinse the spinach well.
Peel the garlic boat.
Fry the garlic in the olive oil in a pan.
Add the spinach and a little salt and pepper and fry it under the lid for a few minutes.
Remove the garlic pod.
Strain, let it cool slightly and squeeze out as much liquid as you can from the spinach.
Chop the spinach and put it in a bowl.
Stir in the ricotta, grated parmesan, mascarpone cheese, egg yolks, nutmeg and season with salt and pepper.
Spread the mixture on the pancakes, roll them up.
Place 2 tablespoons of the bechamel sauce in the bottom of an ovenproof dish and place the pancakes on top.
Also put bechamel sauce on top and sprinkle with the parmesan.
Put the ovenproof dish in the oven for 12-15 minutes and leave it for a few minutes before serving.