Passover Spinach-Cheese Balls

Well, this post on Passover cooking is rather delayed, but I guess it's better late than never!

While there are many foods that my family traditionally makes during Passover, the one recipe I look forward to year-round is spinach cheese balls! (The original recipe calls them Gnocchi di Spinaci, but that's not we called them as kids, and the Americanized kid name stuck in our family.) Sure, I could make them other times of the year, but it's nice to have unique dishes for Passover that we look forward to.

The recipe is adapted from an old cookbook, but I'm sharing it as rewritten by my mom.

Ingredients:

1 package frozen or about 2 bunches fresh spinach

1 cup ricotta cheese

3/4 cup grated Parmesan

1 egg

3 tablespoons potato starch

nutmeg

salt

Parmesan cheese for sprinkling

Defrost frozen chopped spinach. If fresh, wash, steam lightly, then chop fine. Both kinds, squeeze out the juice.

Combine the spinach, ricotta, Parmesan, egg, potato starch, dash nutmeg, dash salt.

Wet your hands and form mixture into balls about the size of a walnut. There should be about 24 balls when you're done.

Place into an oiled or greased baking dish (about 9 x 9) and sprinkle with more Parmesan cheese.

 (What you see here is a doubling of the recipe, so I used a 9x13 dish)

Bake in a preheated 350 F oven for about 30 minutes.

Makes about 4-5 servings in our house, although the original recipe says 6-8. They're that good!

 

Here's the recipe all together, for easier printing:

Ingredients

1 package frozen or about 2 bunches fresh spinach

1 cup ricotta cheese

3/4 cup grated Parmesan

1 egg

3 tablespoons potato starch

nutmeg

salt

Parmesan cheese for sprinkling

1) Defrost frozen chopped spinach. If fresh, wash, steam lightly, then chop fine. Both kinds, squeeze out the juice.

2) Combine the spinach, ricotta, Parmesan, egg, potato starch, dash nutmeg, dash salt.

3) Wet your hands and form mixture into balls about the size of a walnut. There should be about 24 balls when you're done.

4) Place into an oiled or greased baking dish (about 9 x 9) and sprinkle with more Parmesan cheese.

5) Bake in a preheated 350 F oven for about 30 minutes.

Enjoy! More Passover recipes and meal ideas to come next year!