The vintage Italian cheese you need for Christmas
- Preparation and cooking time
- Total time
- Easy
- Makes 40
Skip to ingredients
- DOUGH
- 500ml whole milk
- 250g crustless ciabatta
- 2 tbsp chivesroughly chopped
- 2 tbsp dillroughly chopped
- 2 tbsp flat-leaf parsleyroughly chopped
- 2 tbsp marjoram or thymeroughly chopped
- 1/2 clove garlicchopped
- 150g Grana Padano Riservagrated, plus 1 tbsp to serve
- 3 eggs
- 60g dried breadcrumbs
- to taste Tabasco
- for deep frying vegetable oil
AVOCADO AND CHILLI DIP
- 3 small avocadoschopped into small chunks
- a splash Tabasco
- 1 tsp Dijon mustard
- 1 tsp Worcestershire sauce
- 1 lemonjuiced and zested
- 1/2 small red chillideseeded and chopped
- to serve olive oil
Method
step 1
To make the dough, pour the milk into a bowl and soak the bread for 10 minutes. Squeeze to remove excess milk and let the bread rest for 10 minutes. Meanwhile, add all of the remaining dough ingredients, except the vegetable oil, to a food processor. Add the soaked bread and pulse until mixed together. Divide the dough and roll into 40 small balls. Heat oil no more than 1/3 full in a pan until it reaches 180C on a thermometer or until a cube of bread browns in 30 seconds. Carefully add 10 dough balls to the pan and fry until they are golden. Drain on kitchen paper. Repeat in batches of 10.
step 2
To make the dip, put the avocado in a food processor and blend with the Tabasco, mustard, Worcestershire sauce, lemon juice, salt and pepper until you have a creamy mixture. Transfer to a bowl and top with the red chilli and a drizzle of olive oil.
step 3
Serve the dumplings garnished with the lemon zest and Grana Padano Riserva, and the avocado and chilli dip on the side.
