Canederli (Italian Dumplings)

Another traditional Italian dish, and a poor man’s food. Canederli are made mostly of day-old bread and boiled in a pot of broth, therefore an inexpensive meal that carried over from past years of hardship. Canederli are enjoyable to eat because they are unique, a change of pace from the daily pasta. I don’t think I’ve ever had anything quite like it.

Ingredients for the dumplings:
Mortadella (like baloney)
Bread
Milk
Black pepper
Eggs
Onion
Parsley

First the bread was cut into bits and left out to dry overnight. Then Maria warmed milk on the stove with black pepper, and poured the liquid over the bread. Davide helped her mash and mix the damp bread, then covered it to hold the moister and let sit.

Onions were sautéed with parsley, the mortadella was blended to mashed bits in a food processor, and eggs were whisked. Afterward all the ingredients were successively poured in with the bread. The mixture was first folded with a spatula then hand-kneaded and mashed. Davide was entertained by the hands-on mixing, and I was grateful Carlo wasn’t in the room because he might have had too much fun with it. Plates went over the bowls again to let it sit for a couple of hours.

Near dinner time, Maria and I formed and rolled hearty balls of canederli and lightly covered them in flour.

Francesco prepared the tomato sauce, cooked down with oil and salt. Time is everything in these dishes. Give the sauce time. Let it simmer.

The secret ingredient to awesome sauce is patience. 😉

With parental guidance, Emma gingerly and excitedly placed the dumplings into a pot of boiling broth. Because the only raw ingredient is eggs, they don’t take long to cook. Once the balls floated to the surface of the broth, they were done and placed in the tomato sauce.

Canederli is served either with tomato sauce or broth, according to preference. Like every good dish, it is topped with grana (grated parmigiana).

Francesco’s mom says that what you put into canederli, you will find in it. That wisdom has logic. You can change up what you put in to taste.

I’m already planning a canederli in my future with a darker wheat bread, sausage, oregano and mushrooms dished in the tomato sauce. Mmmmm imagine.

You may have noticed that over half of the family members touched this meal in the making of it. All hands on deck! Every family member is daily involved in mealtime, meal prep, clean up, and always eating.

Food doesn’t just feed us, it fills us. It brings us together. It fills our needs- physically, socially, and spiritually. From birthday cakes to wedding cakes, thanksgiving mashed-potatoes to funeral potatoes. Homemade bread fresh from the oven for after-school snacks, for ministering visits, for holidays. Give us this day our daily bread. Here the good Lord gives us each day our daily pasta.