Baked Crespelle with Spinach, Proscuitto, and Parmesan Filling
Don’t you think that after making so many recipes out of Essentials of Classic Italian Cooking I’d find one I don’t like? Well, I don’t think it’s happened yet. It sure didn’t happen with this recipe. Yum, it was so good.
Crespelle are basically crepes. Easy to make. They crepe can be made up to 3 days ahead. I made mine the night before. When you do that, this recipe comes together pretty quickly. The filling is sauteed onions, proscuitto, and spinach. Once that’s cooked, you add paremesan and bechamel sauce. You fill the crespelle with the mixture, roll them up, and lay them in a single layer in a pan. You spread the remaining bechamel sauce over them, sprinkle with more parmesan, and dot with butter. Then you bake in a hot oven for 5 minutes, then place under a broiler until lightly browned.
I loved the saltiness of the proscuitto and paremsan, and the creaminess of the bechamel. The filling was so good I wondered if I would complete the dish. Somehow those crepes were disappearing into my mouth instead of going into the baking dish.
I think this will be a recipe I will make next time I have guests over for dinner. It’s quick, easy and so good.
Cindy, it looks absolutely sublime.
There is very little you can do with crespelle that won’t taste good, especially if you are doing the cooking, Cindy. When I had my school in Bologna (1970’s-80’s), on the evening my students arrived and checked in I would walk them – no trouble walking then – to Diana, Bologna’s landmark restaurant. My friend Pippi the cook – we didn’t call restaurant cooks chefs yet at that time – would serve as the first of many courses a magnificent dish laden with fresh porcini, when they were in season. Ah, those were the days.
Cindy, if I ate this I’d have to stay on the treadmill for an entire weekend!! This looks like a dish Colleen and I made on our Food Lovers Gastronomic Tour in Emilia Romagna with Marcello. Lovely.
Once again your photos are perfetto and my mouth is watering!
I sometimes forget to write what I am thinking. “The magnificent dish” in my post was of course a magnificent dish of baked crespelle. Occasionally, depending on how chilly was the weather and my sense of the group’s responsiveness, I’d have Pippi send out before the crespelle a bowl of tortellini in brodo, the tortellini handmade by Diana’s then famous sfogline, the stuffing containing mortadella by Alcisa, Diana’s owner and maker of the greatest mortadella, and the broth obtained from Diana’s extraordinary bollito misto. I had to feel the students deserved it!
Great job, Cindy! They look wonderful!
I was planning on making this tomorrow. Instead I am going to use the mushroom and ham filling that is used for lasagna. I did it once before years ago and it was fabulous, of course