Canederli with speck: my grandmother’s recipe for the famous Tyrolean canederli, one of my favorite recipes for using up stale bread, alongside Baked stale bread with tomato and mozzarella, pane cotto and sweet bread fritters made with stale bread. Canederli (Knödel) are a typical dish from Trentino-Alto Adige and since my grandmother Fernanda was from Trento, guess what? I grew up with my grandmother’s canederli served in broth! Hearty, nutritious and traditionally made with stale white bread, parsley, chives, eggs, speck and onion, my grandmother used whatever stale bread she had — even Sicilian homemade bread — and I do the same today. This, after all, is not wrong: canederli, the typical Trentino dish you can find on restaurant menus and in mountain farmhouses, were born as a peasant dish, made with whatever was available. Every family, as is normal for traditional recipes, has its own secret and technique for making canederli, aiming for bread “gnocchi” that are neither too hard nor too soft. There’s no doubt that cooking and serving them with a good meat broth is the most flavorful and genuine way to enjoy them. Today I tell you my grandmother Fernanda’s canederli recipe — my dear and beloved grandmother, who managed to marry Trentino and Sicilian cuisine — a recipe not so far from tradition, except for a little quirk she couldn’t resist: a handful of grated cheese added to the dough… Let’s go to the kitchen and discover my grandmother’s canederli recipe, but before we start cooking, remember that if you want to stay updated on all my other recipes you can follow my Facebook page and my Instagram profile.
Also check these recipes to use up stale bread:
- Difficulty: Very easy
- Cost: Very inexpensive
- Preparation time: 30 Minutes
- Portions: 5-6
- Cooking methods: Stovetop
- Cuisine: Italian
Ingredients for making canederli
- 11 oz stale bread
- 1 cup whole milk (about)
- 2 eggs (medium)
- 7 oz speck
- 1/3 cup white onion
- 1.5 tbsp butter
- to taste parsley (a bunch)
- to taste chives (a small bunch)
- 1/4 cup grated Grana Padano (optional – not included in the original recipe)
- to taste meat broth
Tools
- Pot
- Pan
- Bowl
Preparation
To make speck canederli, start by slicing and cutting the stale bread into cubes. Sprinkle with warm milk, but don’t pour it all at once — wait for it to be absorbed before adding more, and avoid creating a mixture that is too soft. Work the bread with your hands to break it up well and judge the consistency.
Add the eggs and mix. Set the mixture aside and move on to preparing the remaining ingredients. Peel and chop the onion,
let it soften in a pan with the butter, and once softened add the speck.
Cook for about ten minutes, stirring often. Turn off the heat and return to the bread mixture, adding the chopped parsley and chives. Add the speck with the onions as well,
and, if you wish, a handful of grated cheese (my grandmother used it; it gives a bit more flavor, but the original recipe doesn’t include it). Work the mixture until you obtain a homogeneous, fairly firm dough, and with slightly oiled or wet hands form balls about 2 inches in diameter. If the dough is too dry and hard to shape, add a little milk and mix. If it’s too soft and sticky, add a bit of flour (Grandma used breadcrumbs).
Canederli that are too dry or too soft will break apart during cooking, so pay close attention to the dough.
Bring the broth to a boil, place the canederli in it ensuring they are covered, cook over very low heat for 15 minutes, then turn off and let rest for 10 minutes with the lid on. Serve very hot.
Storage and tips
You can store raw canederli in the fridge for 24 hours, well sealed in an airtight container; cooked they keep for two days.
The standard canederli recipe calls for adding a bit of flour to the mixture, and the amount varies depending on the desired consistency. As mentioned, many families prefer to add breadcrumbs instead of flour because breadcrumbs bind the canederli without making them hard.
If you don’t have speck, you can substitute pancetta or lucanica, the typical sausage used in Trento and the surrounding area.
You can generally use stale or dry white bread (often sold already cut into cubes), but my grandmother who lived in Sicily used whatever she had — when it comes to a “use-up” recipe, any bread will do.
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