Malafatta/Strangolapreti/Gnocchi con Bietole

Three titles for the same dish from Emilia Romagna (northern Italy). ‘Malafatta’ means ‘badly made’, and refers to their inevitable home-made appearance. ‘Strangolapreti’ is my favourite, and means ‘priest strangler, apocryphally referring to a greedy prelate’s demise. (Gnocohi con Bietole’ is misleading in that these light dumplings bear little resemblance to all the other rather heavy gnocchi of Italy.

Ideally bietole or Swiss chard should be used for this dish bu