Ingredients

Equipment Needed

• •Large pot for blanching
• •Heavy-bottomed saucepan (20cm)
• •Microplane or fine grater for nutmeg
• •Clean kitchen towel for squeezing spinach

Instructions

1. 1

   Wilt the spinach

   Bring a large pot of well-salted water to a rolling boil. Drop the fresh spinach in and blanch for sixty seconds, no more. The leaves will collapse from a mountain to a fistful almost instantly. Drain immediately and plunge into ice water to stop the cooking. This keeps the color vivid and bright. Once cool, squeeze the spinach in handfuls over the sink until you've wrung out every drop of water you can. Water hiding in the spinach will thin your sauce later and make the whole dish weep on the plate.

   If you're using frozen spinach, skip the blanching. Just thaw it completely and squeeze it dry in a clean kitchen towel. Twist it hard. You'll be amazed how much liquid comes out of something that already looked drained.
2. 2

   Chop the spinach

   On a cutting board, chop the squeezed spinach finely. Not pureed, not left in whole leaves. You want it small enough that it becomes part of the sauce, so each spoonful is a mix of cream and greens. Some Austrian cooks use a hand blender for a smoother result. Both ways are right. I prefer the knife because I like a little texture, that feeling of the spinach catching slightly against your teeth.

3. 3

   Build the Einmach

   Melt the butter in a heavy saucepan over medium heat. When it foams, add the diced onion and cook gently for three to four minutes until soft and translucent. You don't want color here. Add the garlic and stir for thirty seconds, just until it smells sweet and warm. Sprinkle the flour over the onion and garlic, stirring constantly for a full minute. This is an Einmach, the Austrian version of a roux, and it needs that minute of cooking to lose the raw flour taste. If you skip this, you'll taste paste in the finished dish.

   Gretel always said the Einmach is where Austrian sauces begin. It's the quiet foundation under dozens of dishes. Learn to make a good one and you'll use it everywhere.
4. 4

   Add cream and milk

   Pour in the cream and milk gradually, stirring after each addition. Go slowly at first, working a little liquid into the flour paste until it loosens, then add the rest in a steady stream. Whisk as you pour. Lumps form when you add too much liquid at once and the flour clumps together in protest. Bring the sauce to a gentle simmer and let it cook for two to three minutes, stirring occasionally, until it thickens enough to coat the back of a spoon.

5. 5

   Combine and season

   Stir the chopped spinach into the cream sauce. Let it warm through over low heat for three to four minutes, stirring now and then. Grate the nutmeg directly into the pan. Fresh nutmeg is not a suggestion. Pre-ground nutmeg tastes like cardboard compared to a few strokes across a microplane. Season with salt and pepper, then add the lemon juice right at the end. The lemon doesn't make it taste like lemon. It lifts everything, brightens the cream, sharpens the spinach. Without it, the dish sits flat.

6. 6

   Serve warm

   Spoon the Rahmspinat onto a warm plate or into a small dish alongside Semmelknödel and a fried egg. The spinach should be thick enough to hold its shape on the plate but loose enough to spread when you press your fork into it. If it's stiff like paste, stir in a splash more cream. If it's runny, you didn't squeeze your spinach dry enough, but a few more minutes on the heat will help. Mahlzeit!

Chef Tips

• •Buy whole nutmeg and a microplane. Grate it fresh. I will say this until I'm old and gray because the difference between fresh-grated nutmeg and the pre-ground powder from a jar is the difference between the dish working and the dish just being there. Three or four strokes across the grater is all you need.
• •Squeeze your spinach until your hands ache, and then squeeze it once more. Water is the enemy of good Rahmspinat. If liquid pools on the plate around your spinach, that's water you didn't remove, and it dilutes everything you built in the sauce.
• •Serve this with Semmelknödel and a fried egg with a runny yolk. You can serve it alongside Schnitzel or roast pork, and those are fine pairings, but the Knödel-and-egg combination is the one that will make you understand why this dish matters.
• •If fresh spinach isn't in season or looks tired at the market, use frozen. Frozen spinach is blanched and flash-frozen at its peak. Gretel always said there's no shame in frozen spinach if the fresh isn't good. Better honest frozen than sad wilted leaves pretending to be fresh.

Advance Preparation

• •Rahmspinat can be made up to two days ahead and stored in the fridge. Reheat gently over low heat with a splash of cream to loosen it. The nutmeg fades slightly when reheated, so grate a little more in as it warms.
• •Blanched and squeezed spinach can be prepared a day ahead and refrigerated. This makes the final dish come together in under ten minutes.

Frequently Asked Questions

Nutrition Information

1 serving (about 200g)