Italy: Gnocchi

Marco Ariemma

Gnocchi: Italy

Being an Italian, I grew up with the importance of food in my family. From a young age my grandmotherwould stress the fact that food is very important to become big and strong. No matter how much I would eat, it would never be enough to her. The word “full” in Italian just doesn’t seem to exist. A very special meal that my grandmother would make is called gnocchi. This is a very traditional Italian food that is a common feast for us Italians. Gnocchi is what brought my family together for many years. Sunday afternoons was a very special day in my family. It was the day where we would all unite at my grandmother’s house, or as we call her, nonna Tilde, to eat Gnocchi. The gnocchi were not just any gnocchi bought at a regular grocery store, no. These were homemade gnocchi my grandmother and I made Sunday mornings before the whole family would arrive. She did all the hard work of making the pasta but she always made me do the finishing touch, the part that makes gnocchi. She made me roll every little piece of pasta with a special technique she taught me which gave the traditional gnocchi shape. This made me feel proud because she made it seem as if I did all the work and I made the pasta all on my own. When the whole family arrived, we would all sit at the table and enjoy the gnocchi that had my little finger shaped in them. The family would praise me for a job well done on making the gnocchi while my grandmother had a smile from ear to ear watching the family be together enjoying the feast.

THE RECIPE

·         Ingredients

• 5 Whole potatoes (approximately 2 pounds)
• 2 beaten egg yolks
• 1 and a half cups flour
• Pinch of salt

·         Procedure

Bake the potatoes with the skins for about an hour at 350 degrees Fahrenheit

1. Skin the baked potatoes and pass them through a potato ricer
2. Add the flour, pinch of salt, then the egg and mix by hand
3. Strips at a time, roll the dough on a clean, lightly flowered surface
4. Cut the dough into little cubes and roll each cube separately with your index finger to make the gnocchi shape. (this was my job)
5. To cook the gnocchi, throw them in some salted, boiling water and when they begin to float, they are ready to go.
6. Serve with a sauce of your choice, preferably a traditional Italian tomato sauce.

Source

http://stevenfama.blogspot.com/2009/11/think-outside-haggis.html