The theme for Monday posts in May is Spring Vegetables – the rest.
We tend to focus on asparagus this time of year, but there are other great vegetables, some familiar and some not, that are available now.
I’ll post some of our favorites this month.
Third for the month: Spinach.
Spinach salads became very popular in the U.S. while we still lived there. I don’t see them on menus very often here but one can always buy spinach in the salad section at the supermarkets.
I love spinach salads and used to plant lots of spinach in my potager. But then the ants moved in and started moving their aphids onto my spinach and I conceded defeat.
I buy it now – freshly picked for salads and spinach gratins in the spring and early summer.
In winter I use frozen for the gratins…. This one is for spring.
Click here to Pin Spinach & Ricotta Gratin
PrintSpinach & Ricotta Gratin
This easy Fresh Spinach Gratin will even please the ‘spinach haters’. The recipe can easily be doubled or tripled…. just pile it in and bake
- Prep Time: 10 minutes
- Cook Time: 30 minutes
- Total Time: 40 minutes
- Yield: 4 servings 1x
- Category: Vegetables
Ingredients
- 16oz (450gr) fresh spinach, cleaned, roughly chopped
- 4 tbs flour
- 4 tbs butter, soft
- 1/2 cup (4oz 125gr) ricotta cheese
- 1/3 cup (3oz, 90gr) milk
- 2 eggs
- pinch of nutmeg
Instructions
- In large bowl mix all ingredients except spinach.
- When you have a sticky paste add the spinach and mix well.
- Put into a buttered gratin dish and bake at 375F (190 C) for about 30 minutes.
- Serve from the baking dish.
Notes
Mound it high in the gratin dish before baking as it will compact a lot as it cooks.
Mixing the ingredients is a messy job but fingers work the best.
Nutrition
- Serving Size: 1/4 recipe
- Calories: 259
- Sugar: 1.7 g
- Sodium: 162.6 mg
- Fat: 19 g
- Saturated Fat: 11 g
- Trans Fat: 0 g
- Carbohydrates: 12.5 g
- Fiber: 2.8 g
- Protein: 11.5 g
- Cholesterol: 141 mg
Keywords: spinach, spinach gratin, ricotta
This is a more traditional Spinach Gratin, with bread crumbs & cheese.
That’s it !
I have never grown spinach. Anything difficult to wash is not on my dance card. I’ve crunched one too many snails and found a variety of creepy crawlies even after washing several times so I prefer to buy my stuff like that now. Maybe I’m getting too old, but some conveniences are worth it to me.
I loved having freshly picked spinach for a salad…. but the time to wash it properly is more than I want to deal with anymore. And the crunch of tiny snails.