Spinach Dumplings with Mountain Cheese Core

Peel the onions and dice them very finely.

Peel the garlic head and finely chop the cloves or press them through a garlic press.

Cut the mountain cheese: most of it (about 500 g) into very small cubes for the mixture and the remaining part (about 250 g) into larger cubes, which will later go into the dumplings as a core.

Distribute the 3 kg bread cubes and 508 g flour evenly among 3 large bowls or pots and mix each well.

Heat some butter (approx. 50 g) in a large pan. Sauté the finely diced onions over medium heat until translucent.

Add the chopped garlic and briefly roast it, making sure it doesn't turn brown.

Distribute the sautéed onions and garlic evenly among the 3 bowls with the bread cubes.

Heat the 2.5 kg frozen spinach in a large pot until it's completely thawed. Then let it cool well and lightly squeeze out excess water.

Put the 10 eggs, 500 g quark, and 60 g salt into a mixer or blender and blend until smooth.

Add the cooled spinach and blend again until a homogeneous, green mixture forms.

Distribute the liquid spinach-quark mix evenly among the 3 bowls with the bread cubes.

Also mix the small mountain cheese cubes (approx. 500 g) into the mixture in the bowls.

Grate plenty of fresh nutmeg over the mixture, to your taste. Mix everything thoroughly with a wooden spoon until the mixture is evenly moist and holds together well.

Place the dumpling mixture in the refrigerator for at least 30 minutes. This helps to stabilize it and makes shaping easier.

Take a portion of the dumpling mixture in your hand and flatten it.

Place a larger mountain cheese cube (from the core cheese) in the center of the flattened mixture.

Close the mixture around the cheese cube and form it into a ball. Roll the ball between your palms until the surface is nice and smooth.

Repeat this process until all the mixture is used up. You should get approximately 100 dumplings.

Put a large pot of salted water on and bring it to a simmer. It should gently simmer, but not boil vigorously, so the dumplings don't fall apart easily.

Place the shaped dumplings in portions into the simmering water and let them steep for about 15 minutes.

Then lift the cooked dumplings out with a slotted spoon and let them drain well.

Put the 200 g butter into a pot and melt it over medium heat. The butter will first foam, then the milk solids will turn golden brown, and a nutty aroma will develop.

As soon as the butter has turned a hazelnut brown color (make sure it doesn't turn black!), immediately remove the pot from the heat.

Pour the fragrant brown butter over the cooked spinach dumplings.

Generously sprinkle the dumplings with freshly grated Parmesan and serve them immediately.

The dumplings are excellent for meal prepping and freezing. Let them cool completely after cooking.

You can then freeze them in portions and simply reheat them in salted water when needed.