• Prepare the Tomato-Garlic sauce or pour a store-bought sauce into a sauce pan and let it warm up while you make the malfatti.

To Make the Malfatti’s:

• Unwrap the ricotta cheese from the cheesecloth; the texture should be pretty dry and crumbly. Put the cheese into a large bowl and break it up with a fork.
• Finely chop the squeezed spinach and the garlic and add it to the ricotta.
• In a small dish, add the eggs and whip them briefly with a fork, add the eggs, grated Parmigiano-Reggiano, nutmeg and lemon zest to the ricotta mixture. Mix until well combined.
• Taste and season with salt, the cheese is salty so you may not need to add additional salt. Stir in the flour.
• Dust a pie plate generously with all-purpose flour. Coat a sheet tray generously with semolina flour (or all-purpose flour).
• Using a small 1-1/2 inch cookie/ice cream scoop place balls of the cheese mixture onto the flour dish. Roll the balls around to coat them in flour. Roll each flour coated cheese ball around in your hand to slightly firm up the ball. Do this gently so as to not squish the cheese balls. Arrange them on the semolina lined tray.

To cook and assemble:

• Bring a large pot of well-salted water to a boil over medium heat, then reduce the heat until the water is at a simmer.
• Carefully add the malfatti to the simmering water. Cook until the malfatti float and have begun to swell, 3 to 5 minutes. Do this in small batches.
• Using a spider or slotted spoon, carefully remove the malfattii from the cooking water, blot on paper towels and place on an oven-proof serving platter. You can keep the cooked and drained malfatti, on an oven-proof dish, in the oven on the lowest setting, to stay warm while cooking the remaining batches.
• On individual serving plates, spoon some sauce on each plate and spread it out until it becomes a 4 to 5-inch circle. Arrange 5 or 6 malfatti on each circle of sauce. Sprinkle with Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese, garnish with basil and serve immediately.