Savoury crepes with ricotta cheese and spinach

• 30 minutes to prepare • 120 minutes to cook • Serves 4

 

 

Oh Crêpe IV

This is a really simple recipe, provided you’ve got the crepes. Even if you don’t the crepes are fairly easy, requiring little more than beating eggs, then making very thin pancakes with the batter.

The rest of this recipe is less a specific recipe and more an invitation to put things inside of a crepe and fold it up!
In this particular case, I simply boiled the spinach, and mix it with ricotta cheese. Then, I prepared the bechamel. At the very end, I added some concentrated tomato passata.

However, there are a million things that could be done this way.
What about ham and bacon, with perhaps a mushroom and taleggio cheese?
Or, something like a little bit of roasted broccoli, and some swiss cheese?
Quick, easy and beautiful!


Here's what you will need for the 4-serving recipe:

For 5 crepes:
160 g flour 00
2 eggs, lightly beaten
500 ml milk

For the filling:
200 g fresh spinach
200 g ricotta cheese

For the bechamel sauce:
200 ml milk
20 g butter
20 g flour 00
30 g grated Parmesan cheese
200 g tomato passata
salt

1. Make the crepes, as described here
2. Boil fresh spinach in salted water for 5 minutes. Then, let it drain in a colander, together with ricotta cheese
3. Cut the spinach in small pieces using a knife. Place it in small bowl, add ricotta cheese and mix well
4. Prepare bechamel sauce: melt the butter in a saucepan and add the flour.
   Whisk until smooth then slowly pour in the milk, a little at a time. Whisk continuously until the sauce is thick then turn down the heat, add the salt and allow to simmer, stirring, until the sauce is thick and cooked through (this takes around 5 minutes on a gentle heat). Once the sauce is cooked, remove the pot from the heat and stir in the Parmesan cheese
5. Meanwhile, place the tomato passata in a small pot and let it cook for 15 minutes. We want it to become very concentrated. When it is ready, add salt and mix it to the bechamel sauce
6. Preheat oven to 200°C fan forced
7. Place one ladle of pink bechamel sauce on the bottom of a a large baking dish
8. Lay a crepe on a clean work surface and place a spoon of spinach and ricotta sauce onto the crepe. Fold it twice and place in the baking tray, seam side down. Repeat with 4 more crepes
9. Spread the remaining pink bechamel sauce over the crepes. Sprinkle over some more Parmesan cheese
10. Bake for 20 minutes, 15 minutes sealed with aluminium foil, and the last 5 minutes without it
11. Let it cool down for 5 minutes and bring it to your gluttonous table!

In the following, Nutrition Facts of this dish are indicated. Data is provided per serving.