P
Italian · Trentino
Strangolapreti Trentini con Burro e Salvia
Trentino's canonical spinach-bread gnocchi — stale bread soaked in milk, squeezed dry, mixed with blanched and squeezed spinach, egg, flour, and Grana Trentino, formed into rough cylinders and poached in salted water, then dressed only with browned butter and fresh sage. The name translates to 'priest stranglers' — the legend being that a greedy priest ate them so fast he choked. They are the most forgiving of all gnocchi — the bread provides structure that potato gnocchi lacks, making them difficult to over-work into toughness.
I
The Market List
The benchmark for each ingredient, and who stocks it near you. Tap a stockist to go straight to the product.
300 g
stale white bread
at least 3–4 days old, crusts removed
Your own market
250 ml
whole milk
warmed
Your own market
400 g
fresh spinach
blanched, squeezed to near-dry, finely chopped
Your own market
2
eggs
Your own market
60 g
Grana Trentino
finely grated
Not yet stocked in British Columbia
60 g
plain flour
plus extra for dusting
Not yet stocked in British Columbia
1 tsp
fine salt
for the dough
Your own market
For the browned butter
120 g
unsalted butter
Your own market
8
fresh sage leaves
Not yet stocked in British Columbia
To finish
1 tsp
coarse salt
for the poaching water
Your own market
30 g
Grana Trentino
finely grated, to serve
Not yet stocked in British Columbia
II
The Method
1
Tear the stale bread into rough pieces and place in a bowl. Pour the warmed milk over and leave to soak for 20 minutes. After soaking, gather the bread in both hands and squeeze firmly and repeatedly until no milk runs free — the mass should feel almost dry to the touch.
2
Blanch the spinach in boiling salted water for 2 minutes, drain, and refresh in cold water. Squeeze in small handfuls until no further moisture can be extracted, then chop finely on a board until the texture is uniform and dense.
3
In a large bowl, combine the squeezed bread, chopped spinach, eggs, Grana Trentino, salt, and flour. Work the mixture briefly with your hands until cohesive — this is where the dish lives or dies: stop the moment no dry pockets remain, as further working develops gluten and produces rubbery dumplings. The mixture should hold a cylinder shape when pressed.
4
Bring a small pan of salted water to the boil and poach one test dumpling: roll a small cylinder of the mixture, roughly 5 cm long and 2.5 cm in diameter, between lightly floured palms. If it falls apart in the water, work a little more flour and a splash of beaten egg into the mixture; if it holds cleanly and floats, the mixture is correct.
5
Shape the remaining mixture into rough cylinders of the same dimensions. Lay them on a semolina-dusted tray. Bring a wide pan of generously salted water to a steady, gentle boil — not a rolling boil that would batter the dumplings apart.
6
Lower the strangolapreti into the water in batches. They are ready only when they have floated to the surface and remained there for a further 1–2 minutes — floating alone is insufficient. Remove with a slotted spoon and hold warm.
7
Melt the butter in a wide sauté pan over a medium heat. Continue cooking, swirling regularly, until the milk solids turn golden and the butter emits a clean hazelnut scent — this is beurre noisette. Add the sage leaves and allow them to crisp for 30 seconds. The butter must not darken further to brown.
8
Transfer the drained strangolapreti to warm plates, spoon the browned butter and crisped sage over each portion, and finish with a grating of Grana Trentino.
III
Quality Hierarchy
01
Reserve — Bread from a genuine mountain-village loaf, 4 or more days stale; Grana Trentino DOP aged 24 months; butter from a small Trentino malga; black truffle from Val di Non shaved over the finished plate.
02
Estate — Good-quality stale sourdough or ciabatta; Grana Padano DOP; cultured European unsalted butter; garden sage, leaves full and unbruised.
03
Market — Any honest white loaf genuinely stale; Grana Padano; quality supermarket unsalted butter; fresh sage from a market stall.
04
House — Pre-sliced white bread deliberately left to stale; Parmigiano-Reggiano in place of Grana; standard unsalted butter; dried sage used sparingly in the browned butter.
IV
Sensory Tests
◇Touch. Squeezed bread feels almost dry — no milk runs when pressed firmly.
◇Touch. Squeezed spinach yields no further liquid when pressed hard in the fist.
◇Touch. The formed mixture holds a cylinder without crumbling and without sticking to lightly floured palms.
◇Sight. Test dumpling holds its shape in boiling water, rises to the surface, and remains there intact.
◇Sight. Poached dumplings have floated and remained at the surface for 1–2 minutes before removal.
◇Smell. Browned butter gives off a clean hazelnut scent — the precise moment to add sage and remove from heat.
◇Where it lives or dies. The mixture must be worked only until cohesive — the instant no dry pockets remain, stop: continued mixing develops gluten and converts a forgiving dumpling into a rubbery one.
Pillar V
Cross-cuisine parallels are part of membership.
The dishes this one teaches you, across the cuisines — on every recipe.
Enter · from $49 a year
VI
What to Pour
The pairing
Sparkling wine
From British Columbia
Wine
Without alcohol
GT's Synergy Organic Kombucha — Gingerade
Not yet stocked in British Columbia
Non-alcoholic
Why each one works is part of membership — Enter · from $49 a year →
The whole pairingPillar VII
Origin and lineage are part of membership.
Where the dish comes from and how it came to be — on every recipe.
Enter · from $49 a year