Maultaschen — Swabian pasta pockets with meat and spinach

Combine 300 g flour, two eggs without shells, all 60 g water, the olive oil and 3 g salt. Knead for about 8–10 minutes, until the dough is smooth, fairly firm but elastic. Cover tightly with a bowl or plastic wrap and leave for about 30 minutes. Meanwhile, prepare the filling ingredients. Keep the separate 10 g flour for very light dusting later.

Tear the bread roll into small pieces, pour over all the milk and leave for about 10 minutes, then mash with a fork; do not squeeze it and do not discard the milk. Finely chop the onion. Melt 15 g butter in a skillet, add the onion and cook gently over medium-low heat for about 5 minutes. Add the spinach in batches and stir for another 3–4 minutes, until wilted. Heat a little longer so there is no pool of liquid on the bottom, but do not pour off the juices or fat. Finely chop the entire contents of the skillet, transfer to a plate and cool for about 15–20 minutes before it comes into contact with the raw meat.

Combine both portions of raw ground meat with the cooled spinach and onion, keeping all the butter and skillet juices. Add all the soaked bread with its milk, one egg without its shell, finely chopped parsley, 6 g salt, the pepper and nutmeg. Mix with a spoon or a clean hand for about 2 minutes, until cohesive. Do not taste the raw filling. Cover and refrigerate while rolling the dough; the meat is not fried before filling the pockets.

Divide the dough into four similar pieces and keep three covered. Roll each piece into a rectangle about 40 × 20 cm and about 1–1.5 mm thick. Dust the work surface and rolling pin very sparingly with flour from the separate measured portion; do not add unmeasured flour. Adjust the shape with your hand while rolling instead of trimming the edges. Cut each sheet across its longer side into four rectangles about 10 × 20 cm. Cover the prepared pieces with a slightly damp towel so they do not dry out.

Divide all the filling into sixteen similar portions. Put one portion on one half of each rectangle, leaving a clean border about 1 cm wide. Spread the filling in a fairly thin layer. Moisten the edges with a little water, fold the free half of the dough over the filling and gently press the air out from the center toward the edges. Firmly press the three open edges with your fingers, then gently with a fork, without piercing the dough. This makes sixteen sealed pockets about 10 × 10 cm. Discard the flour left on the work surface.

In a wide pot with a capacity of about 5–6 l, bring 3 l water with 15 g salt to a boil. Then lower the heat so the water only simmers gently. Melt the separate 15 g serving butter over low heat and set aside without browning it. Have ready a wide dish for the cooked pockets. If serving both batches together, set the oven to 80°C and have a covered ovenproof dish ready for this.

Carefully add eight Maultaschen to the water and move a spoon along the bottom so they do not stick. Keep the remaining raw pockets refrigerated until their turn. Once a gentle simmer returns, cook for about 15–18 minutes, without boiling vigorously. Do not stop cooking just because they float; the raw filling must cook too. Lift out with a slotted spoon, let the water drain briefly and gently coat in half the serving butter. Keep the first batch covered in the warm oven only while the second batch cooks. Cook the remaining eight in the same water in the same way, then drain and combine with the remaining butter. The cooking water is not served as broth.

Divide all the pockets into four portions of four each. Pour over all the butter remaining in the dish and serve immediately, without unlisted sides. Cool any leftovers quickly, seal in a container and refrigerate until the next day at the latest. Reheat gently under a lid with a little water until the dough and filling are hot throughout.