When Christmastime calls, South Tyrol answers. With snow cascading over its enchanting mountain range, festively decorating the alleyways of little towns throughout the area, where you’ll find traditional Christmas markets that mark the onset of the holidays.
Here, you’ll taste the flavors of alpine cheeses, local pane nero (black bread), venison served with polenta, apple strudel, and even strauben. And we can’t forget the famous locally cured and smoked meat: speck from Alto Adige. A meat that combines the best curing methods of the Mediterranean and the traditional smoking from more Northern countries in Europe, for truly unique and prestigious meat with unique characteristics – a bone-in, trimmed, dry-salted ham that’s left to dry and age for at least 22 weeks.
The result is a specialty that can only come from the 29 producers recognized by the Consorzio di Tutela dello Speck Alto Adige. With a particularly balanced taste – more delicate than the more rustic meats from Northern Europe and yet still more aromatic than the classic sweet prosciutto crudo that can be found in other Italian regions. So, with all this in mind, shall we learn to use this delicious meat in a typically South Tyrolean recipe? Time for canederli with speck!
Our recipe for spinach-basil canederli with pumpkin and crispy speck
Canederli are a typical dumpling from South Tyrol. In this version, we make them with delicious spinach and basil for a healthy dish served with a pumpkin sauce and crispy speck.
Makes 8 canederli dumplings
Ingredients:
150g spelt bread for dumplings (or stale diced bread)
90g boiled and chopped spinach (or 200g fresh spinach)
60g chopped onion
50ml milk
30g cheese
10g basil
2 tablespoons of extra-virgin olive oil
2 eggs
For the pumpkin sauce with crispy speck:
1 tablespoon of spelt flour
1 pinch of nutmeg
Salt and pepper to taste
200g pumpkin, cleaned and cut into cubes
100ml vegetable broth
100g Alto Adige Speck PGI, cut into cubes
2 tablespoons of extra-virgin olive oil
Mixed fresh herbs to taste
Method:
Fry the onion in 2 tablespoons of extra-virgin olive oil until golden brown. Chop the spinach and basil. Mix together the bread, chopped spinach, basil, chopped onion, eggs, milk, cheese, spelt flour, salt, and nutmeg. Let the dough rest for half an hour.
In the meantime, cook the pumpkin in the vegetable broth for 20 minutes in a saucepan. Blend and season with the fresh herbs. Brown the diced speck with a drizzle of extra-virgin olive oil. Divide the spinach-basil mixture into 8 parts and form the typical canederli dumpling shapes. Cook them over low heat in boiling water for 20 minutes. To serve, pour a little pumpkin sauce on the bottom of the plate. Then place the dumplings and the diced speck on top.