I Canederli di Zia Romana

This recipe is tipical of the Trentino region in Italy - it's been written by my aunty's grandmother Carolina (born in the 19th century). Almost every family in that region makes Canederli, and everybody has their own recipe. This is hers, and it's delicious, perfect for cold winter evenings. Perfect as a starter or as mains.

(temporary picture)

Ingredients:

100gr. breadcrumbs

Half a glass of milk or broth

6-7 tablespoon of flour

1 tablespoon of feshly chopped Italian parsley (flat leaf)

2 beaten eggs

2 Italian sausages (not the spicy ones)

30-40gr grated parmesan

50-100gr lard or butter

Ground pepper to taste

800gr of concentrated beef broth (it's essential to make the broth from scratch here)

Method:

Start by frying out the sausages (pierce them well first) on high then medium heat in the lard. Once cooked, allow to cool then take the meat out of their skin and break it down with a fork.

Wet the breadcrumbs with the milk and then squeeze the milk out very well.

Put in a bowl your breadcrumbs paste, sausage meat, parmesan, parsley, pepper and some of the beaten egg and mix very well with your hands. The mixture needs to be soft but not too much as you'll need to make little balls of it. If it's a little too dry/hard then add more of the beaten eggs until you reach the desired consistency.

Make biggish balls (as big as the cup of your hand, see the picture) and toss them lightly in flour.

Bring the broth to the boil and add the Canederli - let them cook for 5 minutes, then serve them in bowls in the broth. As a starter 2-3 Canederli per person are enough, as a light mains 4-5 Canederli (and in that case use more broth than the allocated 800gr).