Big balls of spinach always catch my eye on the rare occasions I go in one of the smarter of Testaccio’s food shops. This is ridiculous considering the cabinets of cheese and entire walls of cured meat that could be taking my attention. However, the bright green, cricket-ball sized globes of blanched spinach that sit on a white tray at the front of the ready-prepared food section are the things I find myself looking at time and again. My train of thought is always the same. They are 14 euros each! Who buys these balls? Making my own at home, I have found there must be a kilo of (hardy) spinach in each one. At the moment spinach is €2.50 a kilo at the market, so there is serious profit in these balls.
“Good spinach should be lively, it should crunch and squeak as you stuff it into the bag” writes Jane Grigson. I think she would have approved of my farming fruit and veg man Filippo on Testaccio market. His spinach needs to be wrestled into the bag, and then bounces against my leg all the way home. She would also, I think, have approved of the bouncing bagful I bought on the Uxbridge Road yesterday, which is now sitting in a colander in my sister’s kitchen in London. I enjoy this parity of ingredients in my two countries. I like hardy winter spinach varieties, with their crumpled leaves, ribbed stems with pink tips, looking robust, yet at the same time sweet and tender.
Introduced to Italy by the Arabs in the 11th century, the spinach grown near Rome is excellent. Generally, it is simply served, wilted, well-drained and dressed with olive oil and a spritz of lemon. Another good Roman way is strascinata – “dragged” – in olive oil and garlic, sometimes with raisins and pine nuts. All that said, butter is what I crave with spinach a lot, thinking of a Jane Grigson recipe in which spinach is wilted, then reheated several times, adding more butter each time, until it is the richest stuff, a spoonful of which knocks the socks off creamed spinach. Butter is also key on bread under spinach and hollandaise, or melted on those pesky-to-poach, but excellent spinach and ricotta dumplings that Tuscans call gnudi.
Today’s recipe though, is for none of the above, nor is it the spinach curry I am looking forward to eating while I am in London. It is a spinach and rice cake, which first came about for me because of spinach and rice leftovers. Or as an Italian would say the avanzi di spinaci e riso – avanzi meaning “what remains”, but also something advantageous, which is the way Italians see leftovers. Of course Italy isn’t alone or special in having resourceful recipes for using leftovers: it’s a feature in traditional home cooking in all countries. But Italy is where I know, and where recipes for leftovers really do still rule, helping cooking feel like a continuum, one dish and meal rolling into the next rather than a series of isolated occasions.
Whether made with advantageous leftovers, or cooked from scratch, this is surprisingly tasty and good idea; savoury and pleasingly plump. It is all very straightforward – rice and spinach mixed with its allies: butter, nutmeg, parmesan and eggs, pressed into a tin then baked. The tin helps create a crusty bottom. It is good served hot, warm or at room temperature. Spinach and orange are good companions, so my Sicilian orange and fennel salad, which I roll out whenever possible, is my choice of accompaniment here. Otherwise there is the very sociable peperonata. Your suggestions are welcome. If you do prepare the spinach for this, maybe cook more than you need and shape your spinach “advantage” into a ball.
Spinach and rice cake – torta di spinaci e riso
I am not going to assume you all have leftover spinach and rice, so here is the recipe from scratch, which should also help you get a handle on quantities so when you do have leftovers you can do it by eye.
Serves 4–6
500g fresh spinach
250g Italian short grain risotto rice (such as arborio or carnaroli)
Salt and black pepper
A small onion
20g butter, plus more for the dish
3 eggs, beaten
50g parmesan
Nutmeg
A handful of fine breadcrumbs
1 Pick over the spinach, discarding discoloured leaves and tough stalks, then wash in a couple of changes of cold water. Stuff the wet spinach into a large pan with no extra water and cook, covered over a low heat until it withers. Tip it into a colander and then leave to drain thoroughly.
2 Boil the rice in salted water for 10 minutes, then drain.
3 Peel and finely dice the onion. In a large frying or sauté pan, fry the onion in the butter with a small pinch of salt until soft and golden. Use scissors to roughly chop the spinach and then add to the frying pan along with the rice.
4 Pull the pan from the flame, allow to cool a little before adding the beaten eggs, parmesan, nutmeg, black pepper and a pinch of salt if necessary.
5 Butter and dust a cake tin or mould with fine breadcrumbs. Tip the mixture into the mould and then press flat with the back of a spoon. Bake at 200C/400F/gas mark 6 for 25 minutes or until the cake is set firm, a little crisp and golden. Allow to sit for 5 minutes before turning out, or serving straight from the tin in wedges. Also very good at room temperature.
