It is a feast disguised as leftovers: Without stale white bread, nothing works in this dish, because it holds all the ingredients together. In South Tyrol and Trentino, the dish has the euphonious name "canederli di spinaci". In these parts of Italy, spinach dumplings are a natural part of the famous dumpling trio, without which your hiking vacation might not be a real vacation. In late summer and fall, not only hiking is in season, but also spinach. This leafy vegetable, which is rich in vitamins and minerals, is not only available freshly harvested in spring - reason enough to give it its own special appearance to set the mood for the cozy season with its hearty dishes.

For the tomato sauce:

50 ml olive oil
1 pepperoncini (chili), processed without the core
1 clove of garlic
½ tsp oregano
10 basil leaves
800 g tinned San Marzano tomatoes
Salt and pepper
1 tsp sugar

For the spinach dumplings:
500 g stale white bread or light rolls from the day before
250 g milk
200 g onion
60 ml olive oil
1 clove of garlic
1.250 g spinach, washed and spun
40 ml pastis to taste
1 pinch of nutmeg
Salt and pepper
4 eggs
80 g flour
120 g butter
12 sage leaves
60 g Parmesan cheese

To make the tomato sauce, first peel and finely chop the garlic. Remove the core from the pepperoncini. Heat the olive oil in a wide pan and add the garlic, peperoncini, basil leaves and oregano. Heat all the ingredients while stirring until the garlic "sings" slightly in the pan. Be careful not to let it burn or get too dark! Next, add the tomatoes and their juice to the pan and simmer over a low heat for about 40 minutes. Then strain the tomato mixture (tip: Flotte Lotte, coarse grater) to obtain a smooth sauce. Finally, reheat the tomato sauce and season to taste with salt, pepper and a pinch of sugar. For the dumplings, cut the bread or bread rolls into cubes about 1.5 cm long and place in a large bowl. Bring the milk to the boil in a pan and pour over the white bread cubes while still hot. Cut the onion into fine cubes and chop the garlic. Sort the spinach leaves, wash and spin dry thoroughly. Heat the olive oil in a large pan, sauté the onions and briefly add the garlic. Then add the spinach leaves and, if desired, deglaze with the pastis. Put the lid on, allow the spinach to collapse and steam until soft. Briefly strain the spinach mixture and liquid, reserving the liquid and reducing it to a syrupy consistency in a small pan. Add the reduction back to the spinach and season everything with nutmeg, salt and pepper. Now prepare the dumpling mixture. Add about two thirds of the spinach mixture to the dumpling bread. Finely puree the remaining spinach with the eggs and flour and also add to the dumpling bread. Mix all the ingredients well and, with moistened hands, form twelve dumplings of about the same size, each weighing 170-180 g. Cook the dumplings in plenty of boiling water for about 10-15 minutes. Meanwhile, prepare the sage butter. To do this, brown the butter in a pan and slowly fry the sage leaves until crispy. To serve, arrange three spinach dumplings per person on a sauce of tomato sauce and garnish with brown butter, fried sage and a little freshly grated Parmesan.