Antonio & Priscilla Carluccio made the Carluccio's Complete Italian Food cookbook. I love it because they detail the essential ingredients in Italian cooking. What makes food in Italy so delicious is not complex recipes, but quality of ingredients. In their book, the Carluccios describe ingredients, some of which are hard to find here in the US, and how they are prepared & used in traditional Italian kitchens.

As part of their recipe for Vincisgrassi (meat & vegetable lasagne), they include a recipe for making spinach balls. These balls are great in a lasagne, and they also stand alone or are wonderful tossed with a simple pasta. I mix them with lambs quarter, a wild green which flourishes in the high desert. Lambs quarter is brain food because it offers a good dose of omega 3s. It grows like a weed in our garden, so I tend to weed it out when I have a recipe to which I can add a boost of nutrition. It has a very mild flavor, and can be tossed into a salad or wilted like spinach.

Ingredients
2 pounds fresh spinach (including an added mix of lambs quarter if available)
1 Tablespoon bread crumbs
1 egg (preferably pastured)
1 oz parmesan cheese, grated
freshly grated nutmeg
salt to taste
olive oil for shallow frying.

Method
Wash spinach & lambs quarter, then place in a large pot just with the water clinging to the leaves. Cover and cook for a few minutes until wilted. Squeeze out excess liquid.

Place bread crumbs in a food processor & process until fine. Add wilted greens & pulse until greens are chopped. Turn out into a mixing bowl. Add egg, parmesan, nutmeg & salt to taste.

Heat olive oil in a frying pan. Form spinach mixture into small balls, and fry until golden. Drain on paper towels.

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