Mushroom and lentil cottage pie
A savoury mushroom-lentil filling with a soft potato topping.
About 1 hr · 360 kcal · 20 g protein per serving
Vegetarian
Spinach and ricotta malfatti
Tender spinach and ricotta dumplings in tomato sauce.
By The foodose editorial team. Nutrition calculated from USDA FoodData Central. Checked on paper on 12 September 2026; not yet cooked in a test kitchen or photographed, so the times and yield are estimates. How we develop our recipes
What still needs a real kitchen
- Confirm the dough holds at 60 g of flour to 250 g of ricotta
- Confirm the batch makes about twelve dumplings
- Photograph the finished bowls
- Time
- About 45 min
- estimated
- Serves
- 2
- see below
- Energy
- 480 kcal
- per serving
- Protein
- 25 g
- per serving
Ingredients for 2 servings
Check off ingredients as you go.
Contains eggs, gluten, milk. Check the labels on packaged ingredients:
- passata. Some passata is salted; check the label.
Cooking steps
Wilt the spinach in a dry pan for a minute, tip it into a sieve and press out as much liquid as you can. Chop it finely.
Mix the spinach with the ricotta, egg, flour and hard cheese until it comes together as a soft dough.
Bring a wide pan of water to a bare simmer. Shape one dumpling with two spoons and poach it for 4 minutes as a test: if it falls apart, work another spoonful of flour into the mixture.
Shape the rest into about twelve dumplings and poach them in batches for 4 to 5 minutes, until they rise and are set right through.
Cooked when: 71°C / 160°F in the centre. A food thermometer is the reliable way to tell.
Meanwhile, warm the passata with the oil in a small pan for 5 minutes. Spoon it into two shallow bowls and lift the dumplings on top.
The useful detail
Poach one test dumpling before shaping the full batch. Ricotta varies in wetness, and the test tells you whether the mixture needs more flour before you have committed all of it.
Make it work for you
One serving is Half the dumplings with half the sauce. You can switch to a smaller portion in the ingredients above; it is three quarters of this, and it contains correspondingly less energy and protein. It is an option, not a goal.
Part-skim ricotta
Firmer, and the dough usually needs slightly less flour.
Per serving: about 15 kcal less, about 5 g more protein, about 3 g less fat.
Parmesan instead of a vegetarian hard cheese
The same, but not vegetarian.
Per serving: about the same energy, about the same protein, about the same fat.
Tinned chopped tomatoes instead of passata
A chunkier sauce; simmer it a few minutes longer.
Per serving: about 35 kcal less, about 1 g less protein, about the same fat.
Estimated nutrition
Per standard serving, calculated from the ingredients above. Nutrition changes with substitutions, brands and how much oil stays in the pan.
Dumplings made mostly of cheese rather than flour, which is why the protein is high for a pasta-style dish.
| Energy | 480 kcal |
|---|---|
| Protein | 25 g |
| Fat | 22 g |
| of which saturates | 11 g |
| Carbohydrate | 49 g |
| of which sugars | 8 g |
| Fibre | 5 g |
| Sodium | 430 mg |
Show calculation notes
Each ingredient’s weight is multiplied by its USDA FoodData Central values per 100 g. The whole recipe is added up and divided by 2. Raw weights are used for meat, fish and vegetables; beans and lentils are drained weights. All of the oil is counted as eaten. Added salt is not included; sodium from stock, bread, cheese and tinned food is.
| Ingredient | Weight used | Source | Energy | Protein |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| spinach | 150 g | FDC 168462Spinach, raw | 35 kcal | 4.3 g |
| ricotta | 250 g | FDC 170851Cheese, ricotta, whole milk | 375 kcal | 18.9 g |
| eggs | 56 g | FDC 171287Egg, whole, raw, fresh | 80 kcal | 7.0 g |
| plain flour | 60 g | FDC 169761Wheat flour, white, all-purpose, unenriched | 218 kcal | 6.2 g |
| vegetarian hard cheese | 25 g | FDC 170848Cheese, parmesan, hardCalculated with FoodData Central's hard Parmesan record. Vegetarian Italian-style hard cheeses are made the same way but with microbial rennet, and are close in composition. | 98 kcal | 8.9 g |
| passata | 300 g | FDC 170460Tomato products, canned, puree, without salt addedCalculated with FoodData Central's unsalted tinned tomato purée record, the closest match to sieved passata. | 114 kcal | 4.9 g |
| olive oil | 4.5 g | FDC 171413Oil, olive, salad or cooking | 40 kcal | 0.0 g |
| Whole recipe | Divided by 2 | 960 kcal | 50.3 g |
Per serving the energy is rounded to the nearest 5 kcal, grams to the nearest whole gram and sodium to the nearest 10 mg. Calculation method 1.0, September 2026. How the calculation works.
Storage and reheating
- In the fridge
- Cool, cover and refrigerate within 2 hours of cooking. Eat within 3 to 4 days. Cooked dumplings firm up in the fridge; reheat them gently in the sauce.
- In the freezer
- Freezing keeps food safe indefinitely; the texture is best if it is eaten sooner rather than later.
- Reheating
- Reheat until it reaches 74°C / 165°F, steaming hot throughout.
Checked against US Food and Drug Administration, Refrigerator and Freezer Storage Chart, USDA Food Safety and Inspection Service, Leftovers and Food Safety, FoodSafety.gov, Safe Minimum Internal Temperatures and FoodSafety.gov, Cold Food Storage Chart. UK guidance from the Food Standards Agency is shorter, at two days for most leftovers.
Try another recipe
Orzo with white beans and spinach
Orzo with white beans, spinach and a hard cheese finish.
About 25 min · 440 kcal · 23 g protein per serving
Vegetarian